Kathy Marsico never thought she’d end up spending half the year in the Italian countryside as a tour guide.
The New Kensington resident worked as a hair dresser and eventually a restaurateur at Ladles in Arnold before she moved it to its present Springdale location.
Though she grew up speaking Italian with her family in Arnold, Marsico had never visited her family’s home region of Calabria until 2014 to attend a culinary course.
Now, she owns five homes in her family’s ancestral village of Miglierina and has found success guiding hundreds of people around the countryside of Calabria, the region at the toe of the southern Italian boot.
“I feel like this is a passion I was meant to do, but I never thought that this would happen in my lifetime,” Marsico said. “It’s been actually the best thing I’ve ever done.”
What started as Marsico guiding a group of mostly friends around southern Italy in 2019 has bloomed into “Calabrian Girl Tours,” which is set to lead six Italian expeditions this year.
Each trip is different, Marsico said, but highlights often include visits to Italian vineyards, Mediterranean beaches and Calabria’s medieval mountain towns.
But Marsico said many of those on her tours tend to relish the slower Italian lifestyle and simple interactions with residents of Miglierina in the piazza, or the local town square.
“That’s what people love the most, believe it or not,” she said. “We go to all these beautiful places, fantastic dinners, we do all that, and they’re favorite time is in the piazza.”
Marsico said the tours can also serve as a heritage trip of sorts for Italian-Americans with roots in Calabria or nearby regions. Like her, several people on tours have had the chance to visit their ancestral towns, she said.
Lori Bernard, a former Greensburg resident who now lives in Florida, said she joined Marsico’s tours in 2022 and 2024.
She said she still gets together with people she met on the tours and even keeps in contact with Italian townspeople she befriended while in Italy.
In fact, she and her husband stopped by Miglierina on an independent trip to visit Marsico and some of the townspeople.
“It was so nice to have people who know us,” Bernard said.
She said many of her favorite memories were calmer moments in the village piazza, and she still makes a sauce she learned to cook during a culinary course on one of Marsico’s tours.
The slower lifestyle, she said, is something she has tried to bring back to the states.
Springdale resident Robin Sarno has also been on two of Marsico’s tours.
She decided to join after listening in on a presentation from Marsico at Ladles.
Sarno said she didn’t know exactly what to expect, but what she found was friendship and great food.
“We just kind of put our lives in Kathy’s hands,” she said.
On the second trip, she even got to hop across the Strait of Messina to visit Sicily, a lifelong dream.
“You’re on a high when you’re there, and you’re on a high when you leave,” Sarno said.
Marsico said she can accommodate about 35 people per tour. Visitors either stay in Marsico’s homes in Miglierina or nearby AirBnBs.
Still, Marsico has her restaurant to manage. Thousands of miles away, she still places orders and does payroll for Ladles, though she credits her staff with keeping the business going.
“When I’m here, I work my butt off,” she said.
Marsico spoke to TribLive over the phone as she prepared raviolis for the restaurant.
She said she sometimes holds presentations about the tours — like the one Sarno attended — after service concludes.
Her daughter has also recently started to help with bookkeeping for “Calabrian Girl Tours,” she said.
“Both businesses work hand in hand,” Marsico said.
Aside from the regularly scheduled public tours, Marsico said she also organizes private trips for larger parties, which she customizes depending on her clients’ desires.
She even organized two private tours farther north to stay in the villa where the 2003 film “Under the Tuscan Sun” was filmed.
Marsico said she’s considering adding more tours in Tuscany, though Calabria remains the primary focus of the business.
Eventually, Marsico plans to fully embrace the new life she has found, resettling in Italy full-time.
“Once you get used to that lifestyle, you look at things differently,” she said.