Hi Georgette! The Campania region of Italy is near and dear to my heart and I think this little story shows how the people we meet when we travel there can have a big impact on your life, often without them even knowing it.
Pre-Covid, my husband and I visited Positano (and Ischia) each summer while our children were at sleepaway camp. During these trips, we would hit pause on the world around us to focus on each other and our love of the region. The first time we visited our favorite beach club D'Arienzo many years ago, we immediately fell in love with this gem of a spot just a short boat ride away from Positano. And as we sat down to lunch on the terrace overlooking the glistening Tyrrhenian Sea, we noticed the place card on the reservation spelled our name incorrectly - it said SPIGO instead of Spiegel.
We joked about how much we loved the Italian "version" of our name, which represented who we were while on vacation in Italy. We were carefree with no schedules or carpools, and we were the kind of people who had no reservation about drinking a pitcher of white wine with peaches every day at lunch! Every morning we would arrive on the boat and the staff would yell out Ciao Spigo! We decided not to correct them about the spelling of our name; when in Italy, we really were Spigo.
When we got home from that trip, we told family and friends the story and they too started calling us Spigo. My husband's Instagram handle is even @iamspigo. It wasn't until years later that we told our friends at D'Arienzo our real name was Spiegel. We all laughed about it and agreed that when in Positano, they would always call us Spigo.
We are counting the days until we once again arrive to this small stretch of beach on the Amalfi Coast, where the sea sparkles, the peach wine flows and our friends announce our arrival with a wave from the dock and a Ciao Spigo on their lips!
Georgette, I have a photo of the original place card that says Spigo if you are at all interested in doing anything with this. Stay safe and well,
Comments posted
Hi Georgette! The Campania region of Italy is near and dear to my heart and I think this little story shows how the people we meet when we travel there can have a big impact on your life, often without them even knowing it.
Pre-Covid, my husband and I visited Positano (and Ischia) each summer while our children were at sleepaway camp. During these trips, we would hit pause on the world around us to focus on each other and our love of the region. The first time we visited our favorite beach club D'Arienzo many years ago, we immediately fell in love with this gem of a spot just a short boat ride away from Positano. And as we sat down to lunch on the terrace overlooking the glistening Tyrrhenian Sea, we noticed the place card on the reservation spelled our name incorrectly - it said SPIGO instead of Spiegel.
We joked about how much we loved the Italian "version" of our name, which represented who we were while on vacation in Italy. We were carefree with no schedules or carpools, and we were the kind of people who had no reservation about drinking a pitcher of white wine with peaches every day at lunch! Every morning we would arrive on the boat and the staff would yell out Ciao Spigo! We decided not to correct them about the spelling of our name; when in Italy, we really were Spigo.
When we got home from that trip, we told family and friends the story and they too started calling us Spigo. My husband's Instagram handle is even @iamspigo. It wasn't until years later that we told our friends at D'Arienzo our real name was Spiegel. We all laughed about it and agreed that when in Positano, they would always call us Spigo.
We are counting the days until we once again arrive to this small stretch of beach on the Amalfi Coast, where the sea sparkles, the peach wine flows and our friends announce our arrival with a wave from the dock and a Ciao Spigo on their lips!
Georgette, I have a photo of the original place card that says Spigo if you are at all interested in doing anything with this. Stay safe and well,
Allison Spiegel (for now)