I don’t believe in accidents. There are only encounters. -Pablo Picasso
Does everything happen for a reason or do we just get lucky sometimes? Three years ago, we arrived in Tuscany after driving thousands of miles through Europe. We were all ready to stop for the holidays until we arrived and discovered the house we rented for this respite was uninhabitable. We packed everyone back into the car and set out to find a place to lay our heads. Our encounter with one man that day changed the course of our journey.
After hours of searching, we sat on the beach in Forte dei Marmi, Italy pondering our future. We finally found Wi-Fi at a local cafe and sent inquiries to as many villas and apartments as we could find on-line. It was October 1st, and for many property owners along the Tuscan coast, the season was over. We received only one reply and luckily it was the only one we needed to end up where we are today.
Antony, from Rental Retreats, answered all of our questions with patience and a high level of detail giving us the assurance we needed to commit to a week at a nearby villa. Because of the way Antony handled everything with the owners, our week-long vacation rental turned into a 6-month stay! Antony did not even live in Italy, yet it felt like he was next-door, taking care of any issue as it arose. From the storm that ripped the awning off the villa to the day the dishwasher died, he coordinated communication and followed through on results. Up to this point, the story was one of excellent customer service, but that was just the first chapter.
In September of 2016, from our high-rise in Bangkok, we were feeling a need to slow down again. After traveling through New Zealand, Australia, and Southeast Asia we needed a home for the holidays. We sent Antony an email and less than a month later we had a home to spend the holidays and an incredible opportunity to contribute to the growing vision of Rental Retreats. Click on the image below to see the culmination of that partnership and a deeper look at where we have been exploring the last several months.
Because Antony took the time when we were complete strangers, it led us to a remarkable professional collaboration that has since turned into a lifelong friendship. It has reminded us that it’s a small world and everyone comes into our experience for a reason.
If we can look at the paths we cross every day as a process of discovery, we will eventually uncover the purpose of a once brief encounter …. We would not be in a beautiful seaside village in Portugal, celebrating the Festa do Santo Antonio this week, if our best-laid plans had gone as planned on that fateful fall day. There are truly no accidents, only encounters.
