Love often strikes when it's least expected.   It knows no cultural boundaries or language barriers.   It may end up as a fling or become more serious.   But when these relationships lead to marriage, joining two cultures is more complicated than simply exchanging wedding vows.  

Every couple has their story.   In the town of Cagli, Italy, two women, one Austrian, one Japanese, took their cultures across borders and around the world to marry their Italian loves.

Born in Vienna, Brigitte Paoletti met her husband, Mario, while vacationing in the Italian city of Cattolica, a town near Cagli. Mario, a Cagliese resident working in Cattolica, first spotted Brigitte and her cousins sunbathing on the beach.

"He saw us lying on the beach and asked the lifeguard what hotel we were staying at," Brigitte recalls.   "When we came out of the hotel at 5 p.m., he was there waiting for us."

Mario didn't know that Brigitte was from Austria or that she couldn't speak more than 10 words in Italian.   But it did not stop them from beginning a relationship.   Mario and Brigitte met every day for one hour until the end of the vacation.

During the next year, they sent each other letters to keep in contact.   Brigitte began studying Italian in school and decided to work as a nanny for an Italian family to strengthen her language skills.   Seven years later, Mario and Brigitte married in Vienna.

Language wasn't their only adjustment.   Brigitte wanted to keep her culture and heritage alive, even though they had decided to settle in Mario's hometown of Cagli.   Moving to an unknown town as more than just a visitor can be intimidating, but Brigitte remembers a somewhat easy transition.

"It was not difficult for me to fit in.   Everyone was very friendly.   They helped you.   I made friends quickly."

Brigitte began teaching German and French while Mario continued his work as an architect.   When the couple started a family, Brigitte's mother decided to move to Cagli for part of the year.   This allowed Brigitte to remain close to her family even though she was a long way from what she knew as home.

Sabrina, Mario and Brigitte's second child, believes that her grandmother's presence helped her grow up feeling close to her German heritage.   "My mother worked all day, so I spent all day with my grandmother.   She spoke with me in German dialect," she said.   All three children, Patrice, Alberto and Sabrina, traveled to Austria once a year to visit their grandparents.

Even though the children are grown, Brigitte still keeps her culture alive.   "My biggest tradition is during Christmas.   I have my family celebrate the Dec. 24, too.   In Italy, they only celebrate Dec. 25."

For the Paoletti family, intercultural marriage fused two European cultures.   But imagine falling in love with someone across the world, continents apart.   That happened to Kazuyo Kato.

Nine years ago, Kazuyo left Nagasaki, Japan, to study Italian in Cagli.   She had studied elementary Italian at home before leaving and came with the intention of immersing herself in both the language and culture.   She did not plan on meeting her future husband.

Marcello Peri worked at a bank in Cagli, the same bank Kazuyo used.   They saw each other on a weekly basis from a professional standpoint but began dating when Marcello agreed to take her and other language students around the town for a tour.

When Marcello and Kazuyo got married, she decided to settle in Italy and leave her parents, three brothers and two sisters in Japan.   Kazuyo says it was not an easy transition.

"When I first came here, people were not so open-minded.   This is a small town, and they were not used to seeing foreigners," she says.

Kazuyo welcomed the Italian culture into her life.   But the Cagliesi were not so open to her.

"I would walk down the street, and all eyes would be on me," she remembers. But she says that things have changed.   People have warmed up to her, and she has come to feel a part of the community.

Kazuyo's home reveals nothing of her heritage, with the exception of several Japanese children's books sitting on the fireplace.   She is fluent in Italian, but Marcello still doesn't speak her language.  

But her culture continues in the lives or her two sons.   Three-year-old Kenzo speaks both Japanese and Italian.   Luca is too young to talk, but Kazuyo says he will learn both languages when he is old enough.   She says that although her husband doesn't eat much of it, she also cooks Japanese food.

Kazuyo says the biggest gap in her life is separation from her family back in Japan, even though she does visit every two years,   "It's difficult raising children without family around.   I can't drop my kids off at their grandparents' home like so many Italians do."

Kazuyo and Brigette will always remember their culture.   Although they may now consider themselves Cagliesi, their history and heritage set them apart.   In subtle ways, both women keep pieces of their countries close to their hearts.   It may be a recipe or a holiday custom that they cherish, even as they live new lives, Italian-style.