As a youngster, I listened to my great aunt as she described her annual trips to Europe and how she had found where her grandfather was from—Airolo, Switzerland. She also told us that we had a great, great, great uncle who started the public education system in Switzerland. On one of my business trips to Constance, Germany, I arrived on Easter Sunday and had no meetings on Monday since it was a holiday. I borrowed a company car and drove from Zurich to the Ticino province to find Airolo.

While enjoying a great pasta lunch with colleagues who joined me on the trip, we struck up a conversation with a couple who spoke English and asked if they knew anything about a Stefano Franscini statue. Oh yes, it's four towns south in Faido. We found the statue, there in the middle of the Piazza Franscini. The last name was spelled the same as the maiden name on my passport. The Italian Swiss area was gorgeous and it made for quite a wonderful day trip.