Stelle (Bella Stelle) -

How we know her – I’ll never forget the first time I met Stelle. She was trying to enter the bottom door of the castle and was locked out. The reason for her arrival was to let us know that she would love to work for us and that she had been the house keeper for the last several people who had lived in our apartment.

I turned her away on the spot (Nicely I might add) because she and I simply could not communicate and I had no idea what she was trying to say. She just kept speaking really fast in Italian and I was worn out after three minutes of listening to her.

One week later she was our house keeper and part time baby sitter to the kids, after Anna and she were able to speak without problem!

What she does – She cleans our house three days a week and takes care of Trey and Olivia when they need a break from Simone!

Our Friendship – It’s tough to explain how we feel about Stelle. She would do anything for us. She’s so kind and caring to our entire family and is always looking out for our best interests. Stelle may be the only person that I know that likes to talk more than my daughter Olivia and she is always in a good mood.

Stelle has taught our entire family more Italian than any other person. She has a very simple philosophy, which is to keep re-phrasing things over and over until we get it! There’s no crutch of someone who speaks a little bit of English with Stelle!

Stelle is always in a good mood and she brings a light hearted energy to our house. The kids love Stella and feel very comfortable with her, almost like she is part of the family. I have told Anna many times, “I just wish we could bring her back to California with us. She’s family…”

Interesting Quip – Stelle thinks that she’s a part time meteorologist! Every week I get the weather report from her (It’s usually mixed in with some homeopathic health remedy or a wise tail from Northern Italy) and I would say she is right about 50% of the time. I’ll never forget the day that the internet said that the high temperature would be about 45 degrees in Florence and Stelle called for snow because she said that the texture of the skin on her arms was telling her that snow would fall today! Unless I missed something, not a flake fell!