Rich and Andrea

Sunday Morning We all awoke early, ready to head to the Milan airport for our final trip home to Atlanta. I am sure we were all ready to arrive home, but the end of anything is always bitter sweet. Rich and I had planned this trip for sometime with the hope of creating lasting memories with our children and their wonderful spouses. It proved to be all that we hoped for and so much more. We hope that this book will help keep the memories of this adventure alive for many years to come. May we always remember the importance of creating memories. Love forever and always, Mom and Dad 2011... read more

As we awoke on Friday Morning to another beautiful day in Italy we could not help but continue our conversations surrounding the wonderful family we had met in the "old" country. We had a quiet day planned for our last day at our villa which included massages by the pool for the ladies. After all it was hard work thus far and we certainly deserved our rewards. Our masseuse was due to arrive at 10:00 am and since we were all exhausted, Laura was kind enough to go first. Talia and I followed as the guys enjoyed some much needed rest as well. As the day wore on and we continued to eat, drink and be merry we decided it was a great time to take a family picture for our annual Christmas card. We all ... read more

Today we planned a quiet day and evening. We planned on heading into the local market that travels from small village to small village in the area to find some fresh vegetables, cheeses and meats. Of course since we were still living off the meal that was made for us days before we really did not need too much but somehow we still managed to purchase some great fresh food. Once again the roads were a bit tricky and we were all thankful for Rich's driving skills, that was until he headed down a one way street in a van the size of a small bus. Before we knew it we were learning all kinds of Italian words most of which you will probably never see on Rosetta Stone. Rich proceeded once again to perform a ... read more

Day Three We all awoke with excitement thinking about our journey to find the Crescenzi family heritage. One of the main reasons we choose this area for our family trip was that our villa is located within 300 kilometers going in different directions to visit both the Crescenzi and DeLuca family heritage. This was all unknown until a few months ago when we began planning this trip, kind of spooky maybe Rich and I were destined to find each other. Or maybe we would find out we were related From our research we knew that the town of Castle Denova Della Duania had a population of 1,600 people. We have all probably been to sporting events with more people in attendance that this entire village. I had memories of a picture I had seen for many ... read more

Day Two After a wonderful first day we all settled into our rooms, the decor of each room is beautiful and looks over either the beautiful pool or garden area. As we all snuggled into our beds it became apparent that the mattresses must be made at the local marble quarry. Talia assured Adam that they did not pull the shortest straw and that all the beds felt the same because she and Laura had tried them all. We were all so tired that we fell asleep rather quickly anyway. With no early plans for the next day we could all sleep in. That was of course everybody but Rich and I since his phone that was lost suddenly woke us up at 5:30am. So with one item found this may turn out to be a ... read more