Alex had been living in Vicenza for a few years already when Grace took a 2-month summer job in Northern Italy. During one of her days off, she traveled to Vicenza to see what the big deal was with all this famous architecture. After a day at the office for him, and a day of sightseeing and gelato for her, they both found themselves at La Proseccheria, a wine bar in downtown Vicenza. It was a warm evening after one of Italy's notoriously hot August days. The display menu was perched on a podium under an arch of grapevines that Alex's table happened to be next to. He noticed Grace as she walked up to it, and only after she sat down and eventually pulled out a book, he decided to ask if she wanted to join him... and his friend Amanda who was also there. Alex found that he couldn't resist the intrigue of a girl ordering bacala and Amarone at 6 pm in the middle of summer, and Grace found that she similarly couldn't resist the promise of the cheese platter that sat nearly untouched on his table. Afterwards, they went and had dinner ("What? This part was only aperitivo," Alex insisted, rather persuasively), and Grace suggested he meet her in Rome the following Thursday, where she was set to fly out of after her job concluded. This time it was Grace's turn to be persuasive, when Alex tried to pull out of the Rome plan late Wednesday night, wondering why he would drive 6 hours after work to see some random girl again. But somehow he showed up (just in time for another dinner — no surprises there), and Grace still remembers this night as, above all, hilarious. Fun, light, and free in a way she hadn't felt for a long time. Right when the story was about to end, and Grace was getting ready to head to the airport and return home to Moscow, she decided to act on a hunch and had her flight changed to the following Tuesday, leaving out of Venice. It would give them the long Labor Day weekend to drive around Italy. They visited Pisa, Cinque Terre, Verona, Merano, Lake Garda... it was a busy few days. Still two strangers, they immediately felt a deep trust and connection, as if they'd always known each other. It felt like fate. That October, they started living together in Italy, and the adventure has continued ever since.