My Italian travels sustain me even after 10 years of separation.  You see, every day that I go to work, I am flooded by the colors, craft, and memories of my favorite place.  I sell exquisite imported dinnerware and accessories that have been created with a talent and tradition carefully sought out by the owners of VARIO.

About the same time they opened up a shop in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, I was enjoying a summer studying art history from my flat in the hill town of Castiglion Fiorentino (CF).  The view from my patio looked out onto a lush valley, and beyond to another hill where a Contessa was restoring a medieval walled city.  The summer that I spent exploring the country was anchored by tastes and smells of dinner cooked by the grandmothers in CF.  My companions and I would schedule our trains to make the most of coming home to these meals that were followed by Chianti in the night air.

In fact, I saw a great deal of the country that summer, but the most peaceful moment of my life thus far was spent sitting in a folding chair on an afternoon in June, in the middle of the Contessa's "city."  Her project was commemorated by a stamp that year, so I have all kinds of tangible ways to remember.  But I find such joy in the conversations with those who come to shop or reminisce, that I have no need for the photographs to jog my memories.. I dream Italia every day!