Instructors Interview: How Did You Meet?

--> Maria and Dan
Maria's Story: In my junior year of college, I spent the Spring semester in Fiesole - just outside of Florence, Italy. There was a small group of students on the program, many like me were studying Art History, and we all enjoyed our time together in this amazing place. We called ourselves the "Villans" - giving a humorous nod to the beautiful Tuscan villa where we studied and most of us lived. 
However, I lived with a host family nearby as did my friend Phil.
Toward the end of our semester, Phil's mom and brother and sister came to visit. Phil invited me and a few others to join them for dinner. 

That evening, we met at the Villa.

The Villa

As cliché as it may be, when I first saw Phil's brother Dan, it was love at first sight. We chatted away while walking through Florence and even managed to share our meals with each other at the restaurant. He was only visiting for a few more days, and we kept trying to run into one another. The evening before he left we all went out dancing and then to a cafe where we talked and talked until we missed the last bus and Dan had to walk me to my host family's home. I remember the intensity of Springtime in Italy as we made our way along the stone streets - the heady scent of wisteria blooms, the warmer evening, it was even the height of the Hale-Bopp comet! 

http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/comet.jp

I found Dan fantastically handsome with his longish curly hair, and his great sense of humor had me laughing till my sides hurt. He was a snowboard instructor in Colorado and seemed to reflect the relaxed freedom of the American West. I also remember thinking he was so intelligent because he remembered a court case that he studied in law school regarding my hometown of Youngstown, Ohio.
But of course his visit was at an end and I still had to finish classes. Dan started making phone calls to his brother and then at the end of the conversation he would ask if I was around. We also kept in touch through some primitive e-mail and of course when I returned from Italy, I made my way out to Colorado to see him again! 

Dan's Story: I moved to Colorado in October of 1995, hoping to teach snowboarding at Beaver Creek. In my second season of teaching, my brother Phil was studying abroad in Italy as a junior in college. Before my dad passed away in 1990, my family had traveled to Italy a few times and it had always been fun. However, I never knew the language. This spring of 1997, my family planned to travel to Fiesole, near Florence, to visit my brother Phil. To prepare for this trip, I studied from a book at the library to learn Italian. My brother teased me that I wouldn't know anything, but I was pleased with my progress.

Fiesole, Italy

I was only in Italy for 6 days. Maria and I can't seem to remember which day we met, but it was special. We were at the Villa, which was beautiful. And my family was staying at the convent very close by. Maria taught me a small part of a piano duet. She was unbelievably beautiful, wonderful, and intelligent. Somehow we managed to share some time together, and even pizza and pasta, which we had to share diagonally across a table of eight or ten people, since we didn't get to sit together, although we really wanted to!
Following my return, I called my brother Phil at the Villa for the first time. Then I asked for Maria! Through God's grace we are here today together with our seven children. And it's still hard to share dinner together across the table of nine people!

2012: Maria and Dan's seven children