"I learned how to work in the US, but I learned how to live in Italy," says Lucia Comnes, an American from the West Coast who has been living in Italy for the past 10 years. Growing up in San Francisco, Lucia heard many Californians speak highly of Italy, saying it was their favorite place they had ever traveled to. Although she, too, wanted to visit Italy, she was leery that the country wouldn't live up to the hype she had been hearing for years.

Then, in 2008, came a fateful event. A friend decided to get married in the Tuscan city of Lucca, and Lucia was invited to the wedding. "I remember walking through the streets of Lucca with tears rolling down my face. It was just so overwhelmingly beautiful," she says. And so began her love affair with Italy—a deep love that continues to this day.