Growing up in a quaint, middle-class Cleveland suburb, I often longed to have the opportunity to see the world and visit all of the beautiful, exotic places I would read about in the novels I loved. I dreamed of touring through the English countryside, exploring German markets around Christmas, reliving the beauty found throughout Anne of Green Gables on Prince Edward Island. I lived vicariously through friends whose parents encouraged them to travel, who were able to study abroad in France and Spain.

It wasn’t until my honeymoon, when my husband Kevin and I visited Italy, that I finally felt free to let the travel bug bite. Since our wedding in 2012, we have traveled to almost 20 countries, as well as several places throughout the United States. Italy kept drawing us back, and it remains our favorite. Our friends would call us intense Italophiles - enough so that I am currently learning the language and am always busy thinking about what region I want to dive into next.

Don’t get me wrong. I still love the Midwest and have chosen to remain here (we live in Chicago). Kevin and I own an online apparel company, Chitown Clothing, which affords us the pleasure of making our own schedules and working abroad. This blog is the story of who we are, where we’ve been and where we are going. A way for us to remember our adventures and relive them through writing.