The Italy Fund. That's what my mother used to call it, the extra money she would sock away — twenty dollars here, fifty there, another hundred under there. It began, I think, in my late elementary school years, the idea that our family would somehow financially be able to swing a four-person trip to the country our family fled at the turn of the century.

We'd never been to Europe so we might as well start with Italy. Go out to dinner? Italy Fund. New sweater? Italy Fund. But time flies and before we knew it my older sister Maria went to college. Two years later I too went to an overpriced academic institution my hard-working parents helped pay for (and I'm still paying for). With two kids in college and life being what it is, The Italy Fund was put on hold.

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Source: http://www.salon.com/