In the fall of 2019, our family made the decision to go on the proverbial “trip of a lifetime” to travel with my then 82-year-old mother Angela (Carolis) Battista to visit Italy in May of 2020.  My wife, Heidi, and our three adult children would travel with us and their “Mee-Maw” who could still speak Italian, with one of the main objectives to visit my grandparents’ hometown of Alvito, 90 minutes southeast of Rome.  

With our children bound to be going their separate ways soon, we thought this would be our best chance to make this magical vacation for “La Famiglia” a reality.  Unfortunately, fate would intervene in the form of a global pandemic in March of 2020, with Italy being one of the hardest hit countries and under strict lockdowns.