“In the autumn I began using our fireplace and by early winter I kept the fire going all day long. It was an elaborate stone structure with a large glass door and air valves funneling warm air throughout the lower story. This was clever because our home wasn’t built in classic Piemontese style with multiple rooms. The lower story was one, long, spacious room with windows extending across the front of the house to optimize the view.

  It must have been the view that made us fall in love with our new home. The lawn extended out to a border full of heather and below the heather a large vineyard cascaded down the hill full of Moscato and Dolcetto grapes. Beyond our lawn, beyond the heather, and into the distance sat the Ligurian alps to one side and Savona on the other. The mountain view dropped in the middle creating a V-shape, the effect making it appear as if this was the chalice I had been looking for all along. The neighbors owned the vineyard and beyond the vines sat our tiny hamlet called Loazzolo. It was over 1500 years old and boasted the smallest DOC in all of Italy. The wine was fantastic and our tiny town might as well have been New York because that was all the company I craved.”

Excerpt From A European Odyssey: How A Boxer’s Daughter Found Grace Bailey Alexander