Working as an attorney in south Florida with a hellish two-hour commute, Alma Benedetti was ready to leave America and head to Italy for a kinder, gentler lifestyle. "I've always been fascinated by my Italian roots because of my nonna (grandmother), who was the lovely matriarch of our family," she says. "After vacationing in Italy a few times, I began to think about making a future there."

On one of her trips, she visited her ancestral village near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy and fell completely and totally in love with the town and its residents. She even got acquainted with some cousins she didn't know she had! She began making plans to move to Europe to enjoy the Italian lifestyle.