In February, after a bomb cyclone hit the Cape Region, Jenn Barrows and her family escaped and arrived a day late in Florence, where their oldest son Griffin was studying at Lorenzo de’ Medici – the same school Jenn attended 36 years earlier.

Within 24 hours, Jenn, Brian, and Griffin headed to Puglia, the southern heel of Italy, to see the town Jenn’s grandfather left for the U.S. at just three years old. They stayed in a historic Trulli home, and in the photo they stand outside the oldest Trullo in the community, where they met the original owners’ daughter and heard her family’s story.

The town’s Trulli, dating to the 14th century, were built from limestone without mortar so peasants could dismantle them quickly to avoid heavy property taxes from the Kingdom of Naples.