Upon hearing he won the drawing for the luxury guest house in sunny Salento, Apulia in southern Italy, Alden Jordan fell over backwards while reaching for his Italian dictionary.

OK, so he didn't react quite that way, but he said he was surprised to win.

The Heartwood Regional Theater Company's European raffle drawing was held on April 4 at the company's Damariscotta office. And Jordan wasn't the only winner from the Boothbay region. Trevett resident Marianne Reynolds' ticket was also drawn. Reynolds will be vacationing in Les Carroz, French Alps in an inviting chalet.

“This is great. It's one of those things, you know ... you buy a ticket but you never think you're really going to win anything,” Jordan said.

He actually bought two tickets (the day before the drawing) according to Joy Braley, executive director of Heartwood.

“Our board member Becky Recor was promoting the raffle right up to the last hours. She ran into Alden in a hardware store I believe, and convinced him to enter,” Braley said.

Jordan expects to vacation in the fall, October or thereabouts.

“I'd been to a yoga retreat in Tuscany and wanted to go south the next time, now I guess I am,” he said.

In addition to lodging, each of the raffle winners received $1,000 to be used for their trips.

The two other winning tickets drawn by Patricia Lane, vice president of the Damariscotta branch of Bath Savings Institution, Heartwood's season sponsor: a third Mainer, Carl Davis of Acton, who won the trip to Provence, and Marianne Brinker of Wellesley, Mass., who will be heading to northern Italy and that 13th century stone villa in the hillside village of Ventimiglia, Alpes-Maritimes.

“It's a win-win,” Braley said. “Twenty-eight percent of the ticket purchasers were from out of state — actually from all over the country. Because of the Web-centric and social networking nature of the raffle, geographic limits were removed. And, some of the property owners have received bookings related to exposure from the raffle.

Braley said this year marked the third time Heartwood held such a raffle, and it proved to be the most successful.

“It's nice to do a fundraiser that doesn’t put intense pressure on the Midcoast community, a community rich with culture and nonprofits, who exist at least partially, with the support of a finite number of local supporters.”

Raffle sponsors were Boothbay Cottages of Boothbay, Peapod Jewelry of Wiscasset and 118 on Munjoy Hill, Portland.  Four properties in Italy and France were donated by generous individuals, connected (some directly, some very indirectly) with the Heartwood board members.

Tickets for the raffle were $50 each with only 200 tickets available for each trip. Braley said plans are already in the works for next year's raffle, and she promises even better odds of winning. Bono Voyage! Buon Viaggio!