Page 55 of It's All Sun and Games

I nod in agreement, grateful for his encouraging words.

‘The thing Liz and even James often forget is that a huge part of marketing is to do with human nature, and how people’s minds work. Liz thinks that if something is sexy it will sell, but that’s not always the case. She thinks if you can make something go viral, and be the absolute best, you’ll succeed, but you only have to think about the must-have, hard-to-get items that pop up every now and then, like toys or energy drinks, and once they’ve had their moment they disappear. Products shouldn’t aim to be the most popular and the most talked about, because that doesn’t always last. Sometimes it’s more important to be established and consistent. There will be brands that you use all the time, because you know them, and you trust them, and they’re not sexy but they do the job. Come a Casa needs to be pitched as a part of the family, not some new cool, sexy thing, because the kind of people who like new, cool, sexy things aren’t brand loyal. They’re always on the lookout for better. But I already know that’s what Liz is going to do, so, we’ll see…’

‘Then she will be doing something that Beppe doesn’t want,’ he says simply.

‘Yep, that’s Liz’s usual style,’ I confirm.

‘You have nothing to worry about, Robin,’ he tells me. ‘I believe in you.’

‘Oh, you’re so good at this,’ I tell him as he starts to lay the breakfast out in front of me.

‘Breakfast?’ he replies. ‘It’s my job.’

‘No, being a fiancé,’ I reply.

He laughs.

Oh, wow. There’s coffee and fruit juice to drink. Then, to eat, we have a selection of different pastries, fresh fruit, and slices of bread absolutely loaded with Nutella.

I can’t resist going for the chocolate course first, picking up a slice of bread and taking a huge bite. I can feel the chocolate all over my lips, I’m not doing a neat job of it, but I don’t care.

‘Oh my God,’ I mumble through a mouthful. ‘So good.’

‘I baked the bread myself,’ he says with a smile.

‘You baked the bread,’ I repeat back to him. ‘Incredible. You really are a fantastic fiancé.’

‘I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would,’ he says with a smile, before popping a piece of melon into his mouth.

If I’m being honest, so am I.

I could definitely get used to breakfast every day. And the rest.

23

Today we are at Come a Casa HQ, to see the office and have a tour of the factory – well, I’m calling it a factory, and it does indeed have one, but doing so doesn’t do the place even close to justice because it is nothing like the factories back home. We’re out in the Italian countryside, in a scene that is straight off a postcard or an oil painting or a dream sequence.

I’ve worked in offices for my entire adult life but they have always been in city centres. How amazing must it be, to work out here, with all of this right outside your window? I see all the time, when I’m reading up on how to be less stressed, that what you need is a certain amount of ‘intrinsic joy’ in your life, which I think basically means time in nature. Working in nature must surely go a long way to bridging that gap? It’s not always easy, to make time for nature each day, when you’re slap-bang in the middle of the city centre. Sure, there are parks here and there, but none that compare to being out here in paradise.

As Beppe gave us the tour, Andrea translated everything he was saying. I wonder if Italian sentences are naturally much longer than English ones, or whether Andrea is giving us the condensed version. There was a story Beppe told Andrea about the time the place was surrounded by wildfire, which thankfully didn’t quite reach the building or the grounds, but when everyone left to head home the flames were apparently reaching high above the cars, with Beppe saying that at one point he practically drove through a wall of flames. It seemed like it took forever for him to tell Andrea the story but, when he told us in English, it was much shorter. Now that I think about it, I do feel like he’s filtering the details for us, getting everything to the point.

I had never seen a vineyard in real life, until today. It sprawls out before us, its lush green vines stretching as far as the eye could see, everything so neat and perfect – and yet still so natural looking. It’s such a warm, sunny day too, so everything is bathed in the most delicious light. I want to run down there, frolicking through the vines, picking grapes, popping them in my mouth. Still, as joyful as that may feel, I would probably look a bit like I’d lost it. Frolicking isn’t very professional, is it?

Next he took us to the winery – something that definitely sounded like my kind of place – where the rich scent of fermenting grapes filled the air. The room was a mixture of some pretty intense-looking machinery with, bizarrely, wooden barrels dotted around.

Beppe explained the winemaking process to us and I knew that it wouldn’t be easy but I was surprised by how high-tech it was. Of all the things to be impressed by, this is surely the least spectacular but, for me, it was the machine that somehow removes all of the stems and the skins from the grapes before ejecting them. If only such machines existed for sorting and removing other things from your life – like Lizes.

The wine juice flows through pipes, into the fermentation room, where it enters these large containers. Then, my gosh, I can’t even remember everything Andrea said about how they have to keep the juice moving, keep the temperature right – keep all of these variables absolutely perfect. Honestly, I think the next time I drink wine (which is going to be shortly, I’m told) I’m going to appreciate each sip so much more, for knowing what a science making wine actually is.

Stepping inside the main building, you’re immediately drawn to the large windows that frame the stunning countryside views, which you can see even more of from upstairs – so, even when you’re inside, you still feel like you’re outside. It’s cooler in here but the golden rays of the sun cast a warm glow over the rolling hills. Again, it’s more like looking at a painting than out of a window.

We are all currently in what Andrea translated as being called the test kitchen. It’s a space with multiple workstations, alongside a large table. Honestly, even the room where they create their recipes and test them out has a real family vibe to it.

We’re all pretty captivated by the set-up here, in a way that we haven’t been before. Well, when we’ve visited our clients previously, none of them have been as cool as this. There’s nothing all that exciting about visiting a window company or a law firm – and there’s basically no food at either place.

‘Beppe says that, seeing as though this is where they create and try out their recipes, he wants you all to try to make something with the things he has laid out for you,’ Andrea translates. ‘He says there are ready-made products as well as fresh ingredients, pasta, and breads. He wants to see what you can create, and for you all to use and sample the items you will be selling.’

Oh, boy. I am not what you would call a naturally gifted cook, nor am I a professionally trained chef, so it really will be testament to these products if I can whip up something even half decent.

---