0The first time Margie Miklas went to Italy she fell in love with the country and the people. Having dreamed of the chance to return and stay for an extended period of time, she embarked on a solo adventure and left for Italy in the spring of 2011. Spending months planning an itinerary that would take her to almost every region of Italy from the Aosta Valley to Sicily, she traveled to over fifty towns in the three months she spent there. Not speaking Italian, she learned the language by taking private lessons from a teacher who grew up in Italy. Armed with this knowledge, she was able to communicate with people she met along the way, and experience the lifestyle and culture of the Italian people. She went back to the villages of her grandparents, walked the same streets they had walked, and discovered cousins she never knew she had. "Memoirs of a Solo Traveler - My Love Affair with Italy" is based on Margie's blog, margieinitaly, which she wrote from Italy.