Merri Travels

Raising Gubbio

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Monday June 30 2008

I don't think Fausto has stopped moving since he dropped me off at the train station on Saturday (or, rather, since before he picked me up for the first time at the train station on Thursday before that). He drove out of the way to the Gubbio train station to pick me up again from my visit to the Marramas, in the midst of another crisis - there was some sort of weekend strike that stopped transport traffic, and it affected the transport of his stables he has to build. Now he's scrambling to get all the materials he needs, and he must use a different design. "People won't notice - the stables will still be good - but I will know it's not the best I had planned."

On the way to my room at the Park Hotel Ai Cappuccini, we stop briefly by the vet gate/endurance village area by the Roman Theatre, where a few more tents and towers have gone up over the weekend. Matteo and another young man are still busy at work there, and Fausto discusses some things with them while answering his phone - constantly his phone rings. He's constantly hopping in his car to go here and pick this up or drop that off, going there to talk with yet another person or company who is helping him with this ride. "It helps when you know many people!" Those many people include friends and family.

Then Fausto has an interview with a television station that he must change clothes and clean up for, then he has to change clothes again so he can go shoe some more horses at his stable, and then... and then...

The work never stops for a ride organizer or ride manager, and the countdown to the event never slows down.