Mike and I are thrilled that you have found us and share our love for all things Italian!
If you know us, you know we love Italy. We love traveling there as often as possible. We love eating Italian food and drinking Italian wine.
We love our Italian families and the stories of their journey to the United States. A few years ago, we started wondering if there was a way to create a business and, more importantly, a life centered around these favorite things of ours. And then we figured it out. We launched Dalla Fonte as our way of sharing all that we love about Italy with all of you through seasonal boxes full of specialty Italian foods and wine.
We are both Italian by heritage and grew up surrounded by Italian foods, personalities, and stories of the homeland (they were not always positive by the way, but more on that later). Maybe it was that influence that brought us back to Italy time and time again but it always felt like fate to us. Each time we traveled to Italy we would bring something home to remind us of the magic of that country and share a piece of that magic with our friends and family. Sometimes that was a jar of pesto from a favorite local restaurant. Other times it was wine carefully wrapped in our suitcases, insulated by travel-worn clothes. If we were REALLY daring, we would wrap prosciutto di parma in layers of plastic bags and “accidentally” forget to claim it at customs. And often it was a simple promise that we would find a way to recreate the feeling of “la dolce vita” (the sweet life) once we were home in Seattle.
During one fateful drive through Montepulciano, fueled by red wine and inspired by the colors of a Tuscan sunset, we decided that we needed to bring these pieces of Italy back in a way that exceeded the size of our suitcases. And on that day, in 2018, the seeds of Dalla Fonte were planted.
Here is our story.
I was born in Southern California and raised in the Pacific Northwest. I was constantly surrounded by family; grandparents, cousins, siblings, and friends that felt like family. From a young age, my mom referred to me as the family historian because of my fascination with Europe and my European ancestry. It was no surprise that part of my college search included a full evaluation of study abroad programs and in the spring of my junior year, I set out to study in Athens. That trip sparked something in me for the first time. I remember sitting on the dock in Aegina, a small island off the coast of Piraeus, and crying. I felt at home in a place that I had never been. How was that possible? Three years later I found myself having the same experience but this time I wasn’t in Greece, I was in Lerici on the Ligurian Coast of Italy. This search to feel connected to my ancestors, to my culture, and to the magic of the Mediterranean influenced the course of my life. I started working at an international IT company headquartered in La Spezia, Italy. Traveling to Italy for work only deepened my love for the country (where else do you have team bonding dinners at Tuscan wineries?) and influenced my approach to my professional career.
Mike’s fascination with travel also started at a young age. Growing up in Rockaway Beach, New York, he was able to watch the ships come in over the horizon from his bedroom window. He marveled at their size and their journey across the Atlantic; imagining that one day he would be the one setting off for a grand adventure. He had that chance after high school when he attended SUNY Maritime. Each year, the rigorous school schedule gave way to summer at sea. Although Mike claims the conditions on the training ship were grueling, his adventures in port seemed to more than makeup for nights in the engine room. After graduating from SUNY, he took his engineering talents to the IT world and helped grow a maritime software and consulting business in North America. Mike’s career took him all over the world and yet he always returned to Italy.
Our lives and our Italian adventures converged while we were working in La Spezia. We bonded over our love for family, exploration, and food. In 2009, we were married with Mike’s three children by our side. Our original plan was a destination wedding in Liguria, but the priority was to have all of our loved ones with us when we said our vows. So instead we found a winery in Woodinville, WA that looked and felt like Italy to us and honeymooned in Tuscany. Through the years, we have continued to travel to Italy. Each time, finding a new place to visit and explore, oftentimes with our four children in tow.
All these adventures bring us to that fateful afternoon drive through Montepulciano in 2018 when the first inspiration for Dalla Fonte struck. In graduate school, I participated in a research study that focused on how people found their calling in life. We asked questions like, “who called you?”, “what did you hear?” and “where were you when you received this call?”. We learned that often it was in the simple moments of peace that people received a message. It was an idea that came while they were driving with the windows down. A spark of imagination that hit during a slow walk. Our a-ha moment was the same. Driving through our favorite place in the world a whisper of an idea came to us. What if we could bring back all that we love about Italian culture and food and wine and share it with others that also longed to be in Italy? And that was how Dalla Fonte was born.
Our favorite Italian proverb reads, “If you can’t live longer, live deeper.” What better way to do that than sharing Italian food, wine, and zest for life with all of you?
So this us, living deeper! Thanks for being a part of our journey.
One Response
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