The owner of this Borgo Rapale establishment in Tuscany loves South Africans. When I visited recently, he told me a World War 2 story involving his family.
A German tank was shelling villages when a platoon of 10 South Africans arrived with a tank. They positioned it in his family' s courtyard before finding the safest place to sleep.
After they retired for the night, the Germans fired a shell at them, killing eight soldiers.
The two survivors, seeking revenge, reconnoitred the next afternoon and, just after dusk, fired a direct hit on the Nazis.
In celebration, the owner's family invited the two foreign heroes to sleep inside their house.
The next day the South Africans returned to Siena with their comrades' corpses.
The hospitable family later discovered that its stamp collection was missing from the farmstead, stolen by a South African soldier, and never recovered.
"Well, that's life," our host said, smiling.
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