If you’ve ever vacationed in Italy, or maybe daydreamed of spending a season — heck, even a year — there, you’ll appreciate Denver restaurateur Jon Schlegel’s second of two life goals. The first, apparently, was to open a business by the age of 30, which Schlegel accomplished when he started the breakfast behemoth Snooze, now with around 40 locations in five states and growing. 

The second was to live overseas, but not just as a permanent tourist. At 40, Schlegel moved with his Denver-based family to a small town in the Barolo wine region, where he would learn the winemaking business and some six years later open a Colorado- and Italy-based winery to bridge his two livelihoods.