She travelled to Italy to save her marriage. Here’s how she ended up falling for her Italian tour guide

Monica Kennedy and Isidoro Langella met when Isidoro was Monica's tour guide, showing her around the Amalfi Coast in 2017. The two strangers had no idea how signficant the meeting would turn out to be. (Monica Kennedy via CNN Newsource)

When Monica Kennedy booked the trip to the Amalfi Coast, she was hoping the time in Italy would save her marriage.

It was 2017. Monica lived in a nice house in Connecticut in the United States. She worked as a clinical paralegal at Yale Law School. She’d been married for over 20 years. Her adult children had gone to college. In her spare time, Monica taught yoga classes and spent time with friends. On the outside, her life looked perfect.

But the cracks in Monica’s decades-long marriage were deepening. Beneath the surface, Monica was unhappy and her relationship was breaking down.

“We had been married young, and we had two kids, and they were grown… and our lives were just going in two separate directions,” Monica tells CNN Travel today.

In her heart, Monica knew she was approaching “the end of the relationship.” But with their years of history, this was hard to accept. And it was scary to imagine life on her own.

“Italy was sort of a way to see if we could salvage the relationship,” says Monica.

“And that’s where I met Isidoro.”

A fateful meeting

Isidoro Langella lived and worked on the Amalfi Coast, a stretch of rugged, beautiful coastline in southern Italy known for its colorful houses built into cliffs, surrounded by turquoise waters.

Isidoro, from Naples, hosted small, upscale group tours to the towns dotted along the coast.

“That was my job when I met her — driving a fancy car, a Mercedes, taking them from a fancy, five-star hotel on a tour of eight, nine hours,” Isidoro tells CNN Travel. “You give them information about history, about our culture, you take them to restaurants.”

Isidoro was genuinely passionate about Italian history and art. He enjoyed his job. He’d never been married, he didn’t have kids. He was content.

“My life was set in Sorrento, on the Amalfi Coast,” Isidoro says today.

When Isidoro met Monica and her husband, he thought they were almost exactly like all the other well-to-do American couples he ferried around Amalfi.

He’d noticed, after years on the job, that the American men were “a little more casual, even sloppy” while the women were always immaculately put together.

“When you work every day, everyday you pick clients from the hotels in Sorrento, Positano … they look all the same,” he says today.

So while Isidoro thought Monica was “classically beautiful” she didn’t stand out to him.

Monica was more struck by Isidoro on that first meeting. It wasn’t love at first sight — not anything like that. But she liked him right away, and felt comfortable in his presence.

“Isidoro just stood out as very kind, gentle, knowledgeable, really, just lovely,” she says today. “And he was well dressed.”

For Isidoro, the only thing that distinguished Monica and her husband on that first meeting was what he decided was a “weird energy” between them.

While they were both superficially polite and friendly — both to him and to each other — he could sense something wasn’t right between them. It made him vaguely uncomfortable.

And so when, after the tour concluded, the couple invited Isidoro to join them for lunch, he didn’t want to go. But he felt he had to say yes.

And then the lunch was a bit disappointing.

“It was the worst food I had in Italy,” says Monica.

“It was not a nice restaurant,” agrees Isidoro.

Despite the less-than-impressive spaghetti, Monica classified the day as a success — no small feat when navigating a dwindling marriage. She left feeling thankful for Isidoro and his kind presence.

“He was so nice,” she says today. “He was so knowledgeable about the Amalfi Coast and the area. And it was just an easy, really nice day.”

Before Monica and her husband parted ways with Isidoro, he passed on his contact information, including his Facebook details.

This was normal practice. Isidoro’s past clients often referred him to future clients.

And sure enough, Isidoro wasn’t surprised when, about a year later, Monica reached out to him with a request.

“A friend of mine had a daughter who was doing study abroad in Florence, and she wanted to go down to the Amalfi Coast,” Monica recalls.

Monica’s friend was worried about her daughter navigating her way around Italy with only other American students in tow.

“So I said, ‘I know someone — he’s lovely, and she would be safe, and I would trust this person,’” recalls Monica. “So I got in touch with Isidoro, and he made all of these arrangements to take them. And then, at the last minute, they canceled.”

When Monica found out, she felt “so terrible.” She reached out to apologize, sending Isidoro a long message.

“He had gone out of his way…” she says. “And that’s when we really started talking.”

Reconnecting from afar

The Amalfi Coast trip had not saved Monica’s marriage. When she got in touch with Isidoro about her friend’s daughter’s travel plans it was mid-2018. Monica was officially in the middle of her divorce.

When her friend’s daughter canceled the plans, Monica felt really guilty.

“He was saying, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I said, ‘Oh, in the USA, you know, time is money, and I just feel bad you made all these arrangements …’” recalls Monica.

“She wanted to pay me for nothing,” says Isidoro, still somewhat incredulous all these years later.

The first few messages were formal, business-like. But somehow the talk of the cancelled trip turned into conversation about other topics.

Isidoro posted about the Italian classic movie “Cinema Paradiso.” Monica told him how much the movie had moved her when she saw it as a student in the 1980s. They started chatting about other movies they enjoyed. Then about books, art, music, family. Somehow, to their surprise, something was growing between them — a connection neither of them expected or could quite place.

“I would have never expected that we would have so much in common and hit it off like we did,” says Monica.

“In Italiano we say ‘corrispondenza d’amorosi sensi.’ It’s from a poet, but in translation, it means ‘on the same wavelength,’” says Isidoro.

Monica and Isidoro started regularly messaging each other. They confided in each other. Shared details of their lives — both the mundane and the deep.

“We spent a lot of time getting to know each other — just through talking on WhatsApp and messaging, talking,” says Monica. “I feel like it was almost like old fashioned, because you get to know someone a lot that way, because you’re not spending time going out to dinner, you don’t have the exterior, external distractions.”

“You have no mask,” agrees Isidoro. “You are free.”

As the months rolled on, the rate of conversation increased. And in time, Monica and Isidoro started talking about potentially meeting in person.

It was an exciting thought. But Monica was also conscious that this intense connection between them might be limited to the online sphere — after all, they’d only spent time together once, and she’d been married to someone else at the time. What if she’d invented this chemistry? Perhaps it was just wishful thinking in the wake of her divorce.

But the only way to be sure, she decided, was to return to the Amalfi Coast and reunite with Isidoro.

So she booked a flight.

Monica is one of seven siblings, and she shared her travel plans with her closest sister, who encouraged her excitement.

“I think she was happy because she was seeing me feel happy for the first time in a long time,” says Monica.

Other people in her life were less enthusiastic — surprised and concerned by Monica’s decision to fly to Italy alone.

It was, Monica admits today, out of character.

“I got married when I was very young. I was 23. I really didn’t have this big, adventurous life at all,” she says. “And so I think maybe some people thought I lost my mind — I’m going to just go to Italy and meet this strange man.”

But Monica felt confident in the decision. Her confidence surprised even her. But she and Isidoro also talked through this inherent strangeness, the inherent unpredictability of the situation. They were both on the same page.

“We said, ‘Okay, if when we’re together and there’s no chemistry, we will just be friends,’” recalls Monica. “And it turned out that… there was chemistry…”

Of course, reuniting in the airport was inevitably “surreal,” says Monica. Both she and Isidoro didn’t quite know how to act around each other, and weren’t quite sure what was going on between them.

“But within five minutes, we’d relaxed,” she says.

The next week passed in a blur of seaside drives, evenings sitting opposite one another in wine bars with coastal views. Long conversations that mirrored their online exchanges. An increasing certainty that Monica’s decision to fly to Italy had paid off.

“And with that, we started our relationship,” says Monica.

Long distance

After that first week together in Italy, Monica and Isidoro parted ways certain they would see each other again. Sure enough, Monica returned to Italy to visit Isidoro. Their relationship continued to grow.

“And after she came several times, I went to the USA,” says Isidoro.

In Connecticut, Isidoro met Monica’s children, home from college.

Monica was conscious that the divorce hadn’t been easy on her kids. They were adults, living their own lives, but they were, naturally, still hurt by their parents’ relationship breaking down. Moncia was also aware it might not be easy for her children to see her with someone else.

“It was definitely hard for them initially,” she says. “But they’re both — they’re just free thinkers, and I think they understand me, and so they just want me to be happy, just like I want them to be happy,” says Moncia. “They like Isidoro.”

Monica and Isidoro were just getting into a rhythm with long distance when the pandemic hit, and travel bans separated them on opposite continents.

“It was almost 300 days,” says Monica.

For long stretches of time, the couple had no idea when they’d be able to see each other again.

“Finally, Italy, and some other countries of Europe, allowed people who were in a committed relationship to reunite,” says Isidoro.

In late 2020, Monica travelled to Italy to spend time with Isidoro and work remotely. Seeing each other again was an unforgettable moment for them both. She returned as soon as she could in 2021. Both Monica and Isidoro found themselves talking about their future. They wanted to ensure they’d never be pulled apart again.

“We were desperate,” says Monica. “When you’re separated for that long, and everything seems so unsure… we were just trying to have a normal life together.”

Monica and Isidoro were in love. They knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. So, semi-spontaneously, they decided to get married, planning a tiny ceremony — just the two of them — in Sant’Agnello, on the Sorrento coast.

“But right before, I started to get really sick,” says Monica.

Monica has chronic diverticulitis, meaning her intestine sometimes becomes inflamed. She’s generally able to manage the condition, but sometimes experiences flare ups.

This period in the lead-up to the wedding was particularly rough. Monica was hospitalized.

Isidoro supported her throughout, and while the wedding was delayed, Monica and Isidoro did get married — eventually —- on April 28, 2021.

It was just the two of them, with two of Isidoro’s friends as witnesses. Pandemic travel restrictions prevented a bigger celebration. But for Monica and Isidoro, the low-key, sun-kissed day was so special.

“We had a little lunch in a nice restaurant in a nice location, Mirano, on the Amalfi Coast, in a restaurant right on the sea,” recalls Isidoro.

Following their wedding, Isidoro and Monica were so excited “to start this adventure together,” as Isidoro puts it. He moved to the US with Monica, and the couple began sketching out plans to start a travel business together.

It seemed like the ideal coupling of Isidoro’s tour guide skills and Monica’s business mindset. And Monica came up with the perfect name: “To Amalfi With Love Tours of Italy.”

“The name is a nod to our love story,” she says.

The goal of the business is to offer “an authentic experience,” says Isidoro, who says he loves sharing “my passion about my history, my heart, my culture” with visitors to Italy.

After a period living together in the US, Monica and Isidoro decided to relocate to Italy.

Monica felt the United States’ high cost of living, unforgiving work hours and a poor work/life balance didn’t help her health. And she and Isidoro figured their fledgling business would thrive on the ground in Italy.

“We wanted to make more connections in Italy, to explore things, find things that were off the beaten path,” she says.

So Monica put her belongings in storage. She left her job at Yale. And she and Isidoro bought a home in Tuscany — somewhere new to both of them.

They settled happily in the village Castiglione del Lago in Umbria, on the banks of Lake Trasimeno.

“It’s super peaceful here,” says Monica. “We’ve grown our business. It ended up being a successful adventure in all ways. The only hard part for me is I’m away from my kids, although they’re adults, but they say that they’re really proud of me — and of us — for what we’re doing.”

Dreaming big

Sometimes Monica opens up the shutters of her Italian farmhouse, looks out over the green hills and the lake, and can’t quite believe the life she’s living.

“My life was set in Connecticut,” she says. “I would have never expected that my tour guide on this trip with my now ex-husband to Italy would have ended up becoming my husband.”

Isidoro says he’s grateful to be able to tackle life’s ups and downs with Monica by his side. He says she encourages him to dream big.

“We are two dreamers, as you can guess, so maybe the world belongs to dreamers,” he says.

The couple’s story, adds Monica, remains “to be continued.” They’re not sure if Tuscany is forever. Maybe they’ll return to the United States one day. Maybe they’ll divide their time between the two countries.

But what’s for sure? They see each other as forever.

“It’s hard to put into words how we are so content together, and that we are living a dream,” says Monica, calling the relationship a “touchstone” as they navigate life’s ups and downs.

For Monica, her unexpected love story with Isidoro is a reminder never to give up on happiness. Never to settle for less.

“I think that life and other people and noise and societal norms, all those things can get in the way of your path. And so if you really can be quiet and listen to what your heart is saying, I think it all will fall into place,” says Monica.

“When the universe has you meet someone, you just never know what that’s going to be. I think that that’s really our situation… It was just a moment. And who would expect all of this to grow out of that? What a chance meeting.”