When my wife and I headed to Italy last fall, it was a very much needed trip. Lots had happened in our lives over the previous year (really, two years, but who’s counting?) and the idea of leaving the continent and spending a couple of weeks wandering around Milan, Turin, the Barolo area and Lake Como sounded like the slice of heaven we both needed. To make it a touch more special, we sprung for the really fancy seats on our flight to Milan and starting crushing Champagne as soon as we could.