Part 1: Grasse, France – The Perfume Capital of the World
Part 2: Train Talk
Part 3: Catania, Sicily – Homegrown Organic Olive Oil and Wine

A beautiful way to meet new friends –
riding the European trains on a Eurailpass

It started on the train -- a long journey from the city of Nice in France to Rome, Italy.

On European trains, people sharing a cabin immediately start up a conversation. You can meet the most fascinating people this way and get into the most interesting discussions. Our train seat-mates began to speak passionately with lots of vivid gestures. Their topic apparently was politics. I do not speak Italian but I could hear and recognize a few names and it just seemed natural to join the conversation.

In just 10 minutes, it had become a heated but friendly conversation between people who had never seen each other before and most probably never will see each other again.

We spoke a motley combination of Italian, English, French, Dutch (me), even a bit of Malay as I introduced my wife and explained we had come from Malaysia and were traveling through Europe on a ‘working vacation.’

We all had a good time exchanging views and developed great respect for one another. It was with real regret that we waved our companions off at their various stations.

This was a working vacation -- crisscrossing Europe by train with a fantastic Eurail pass deal on these fast trains that in fact are better than flying. Why fly? Flying has such problems including going to busy airports and waiting and waiting… It is so much easier to relax on a train. In the end, it usually takes the same amount of time. If you fly, you will then need to take transport from the airport to your destination. If you arrive by train, it will take you to a station right in the middle of the city where you want to be!

Hours later, the only one left in our cabin was a man who said he was from Catania on the island of Sicily. Like us, he would need to spend the night on this very comfortable train which soon would be loaded on to an amazing “train ferry” to cross the channel from the Italian mainland to Sicily.

A train ferry -- we had never seen this before. Maybe we should show this picture to Amtrak in the U.S. -- how a train driving at 240KM per hour simply stops and is rolled onto a ferry to make the crossing of the Straits of Messina to Sicily, then on the other side, the train rushes off the ferry on its way to its destination. Woah Italy!

I asked our Sicilian companion what he did for a living.

“Well,” he said - in very good English – “I own a small plantation of 600 olive oil trees and also a small vineyard. Everything is grown without using pesticides. We produce a very limited amount of quality olive oil and wine.”

I couldn't believe my ears! I have been committed to using only organically grown ingredients for our Paul Penders products for almost 40 years – and had hoped to learn more on this trip about sources for organic olive oil and wines. He also was interested to hear my story about natural organic cosmetics and the history of our small company.

That last hour on the train was spent talking with Mr. Sawillaci Gaetano. We shared our mutual passions and philosophies of life. Like me, he loves to travel and has been many times to San Francisco – my spiritual home.

We really bonded as we talked about the ways both of us earn a living -- not by becoming bigger but by nurturing smallness as a business concept and deepening that concept out as much as we can.

He was not in it for the money. Because his plantation has only 600 trees, he can produce no more than few thousand bottles of the purest olive oil and of fine wine - very small productions indeed but made with great passion. Most of the crop is used for family and friends.

Mr. Gaetano keeps life simple and rich with a beautiful philosophy and a respect for tradition. That philosophy extends to hospitality – before we parted, he invited me to visit his property in Catania.

I’ll tell you more about my visit to his organic farm and some of my other wonderful experiences in Europe in upcoming blogs.

By Paul Penders

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