It was early May 1999.

A good year ago, in March 1998, we had moved from Munich to Umbria to an old, run-down farm and had been renovating for months. We had restored and furnished rooms and holiday apartments, laid out a garden and had a child in between.

The first guests are coming!

On May 8th, 1999 the first guests should open our seminar house La Rogaia with a tango course.

Marina Jablonski, one of the first tango teachers in Munich, had put together a small group and even tango dancers from northern Germany had registered for a week of courses on our Umbrian hill.

When the guests finally arrived on the afternoon of May 8th, we were honestly not quite finished with all our preparations ...

Moving boxes and furniture piled up in the dance hall.

Marina, as she later told us, got almost a heart attack and none of those who had traveled could imagine that the room would be ready for the course the next morning. But they still seemed to trust us that we would get everything ready in time.

The urgently needed and the beautiful

When one of the participants asked me what time there would be breakfast tomorrow, it suddenly hit me that we had also offered breakfast.

Something I had completely forgotten in all that stress!

So quickly send Wolfgang out shopping!

But where was the guy?

Gone without a trace and one of our cars with him.

For better or worse, I had to pack the nine-month-old Amira into the child seat of our 2CV the “flyin dustbin” and drive to the grocery store in the village myself.

When I came back, Wolfgang planted calmly blooming roses, which he had just got from our favorite nursery, in the beds around the terrace.

First I gasped for breath and found that there was something more urgent to be done.

But actually he was right, above all it should be nice for our guests.

And his forward-looking love for the beautiful has proven itself time and again over the years!

The guests had all arrived in the meantime, had moved into their holiday apartments and were enjoying the warm evening sun on the large terrace, now framed with roses. Some of the participants cooked a delicious dinner for everyone and it soon became a familiar and relaxed atmosphere.

Done !

The next morning the dance room was emptied, cleaned and even freshly whitewashed.

The stereo worked and the breakfast buffet was ready on time.

Wolfgang, I and our two helpers had a somewhat short night, but everything was as we had imagined.

And when the sounds of Di Sarli and Alfredo de Angelis echoed through the room for the first time and floated over the terrace and the rose beds, I knew that all the effort had been worth it and that we would have many wonderful years filled with tango in La Rogaia

The week with Marina was a great success and she kept coming back to La Rogaia in the years that followed.

Do you also have fond memories of a tango holiday in La Rogaia?

Then tell us and others about your most beautiful tango moments.

You can send us an email or write a comment on our blog.

We are really looking forward to it!

Tango courses in La Rogaia will start again in May 2021!

If you are already thinking of your vacation in 2021, you might find a suitable date in our tango course program.

CLICK HERE to find our complete program for 2021:www.tango-holidays.com