Forget anything made in America. This man grew up in this chocolate shop. His dad started it. Ask Italians and they will tell you of the many chocolate makers here in Italy, Gobino’s chocolate is a passion, an art.

We had a blast with him. When a person has passion for what they do, no matter what they do, it’s fun to be around them. One of my all time favorite CT stories is about a 70-year-old man who pumped gas at the same gas station for 50 years. It didn’t matter that his job wasn’t glamorous, or that it didn’t pay a lot. He loved his life and his job… and it rubbed off on everyone around him.

Guido Gobino lives a life of passion… and also makes chocolate kissed by God. It’s so good it is evil… in a good way.

Okay that makes no sense. But you’ll see. We’ll have that story for you later this week.

Secondly, the last loose end to tie from the “Monte San Savino” story that aired last Friday night… If you recall this is the story I posted in the blog on the wrong day (last Wednesday). Then I received an e-mail from a woman in London who grew up in Monte San Savino, Italy. It was so random and unexpected I posted her e-mail the next day, Thursday.

I wrote her back and told her to watch the TV version which would appear on this Web site last Friday night. She did and wrote me again. It seems sensible to give you all closure on this.

Mike
Thanks for your reply. I have watched your video on Monte San Savino on the WCNC Web site and I really enjoyed it. I still cannot believe how a small village like Monte San Savino has ended up in the Carolinas’ news Web site.
I am currently teaching Italian in some colleges in London and I would like to show your video to my students. Is it OK with you?
You asked how I found your journal… I just typed “Monte San Savino” in the Google news search bar. However rather than using www.google.it as I usually do, I used www.google.com so it searched first through the US Web sites instead of the Italian ones.
Good luck for your future and thanks again for what you have written,
Francesca

Sometimes I think God likes making people smile by using unsuspecting knuckleheads. We should consider changing the name of our show from Carolina Traveler to Unsuspecting Knuckleheads. It better captures what we do. And many thanks to Francesca for taking time to write. I’m a giant smiling knuckle.

Still makes me shake my head. The world has shrunk.

If you want to fully baptize yourself in the “Monte San Savino” fun read last Wednesday’s and Friday’s journals and then watch the TV version on the Web. It’s good stuff.

Okay, fast forward to today. Tonight there is no 5 PM news because the Olympics is eating that time. So I’ll see you at 7:30 on the Olympic Zone show. We have a fun story tonight. I sort of poke fun at myself and how American TV “personalities” are like divas (and yes, personality is in quotes because some people on TV are like wet cardboard in real life).

It’s funny. Almost all of you will like it.

Okay, ciao for now,

Mike Redding