Deamicis, Ralph: - Ralph and Lahni DeAmicis backed into writing tour and travel books by starting to create a book about winery buildings for their series on Feng Shui, but the research was going excruciatingly slow. While the winery staff knew the wines, they rarely knew about the buildings. Then one day, while coming out of the Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Ralph chatted up a limousine driver waiting for his clients, who was a wealth of information about interesting winery buildings, apparently that knowledge was part of a tour guide's toolbox. Seeing a research opportunity that would also put some money in their pockets, Ralph got a part time job driving tours, coming home daily with notes and photographs of the wineries. As he navigated his way around the various valleys, they realized that there wasn't a good winery tour book, even though the wineries are the biggest attraction. So, their book about buildings morphed into their first tour book in 2008, becoming the first in a series. After two years of touring for other companies Ralph & Lahni decided to start their own little tour company, Amicis Tours, to make the continuing research easier. They soon realized that it's a fun business, that brings them to beautiful places while connecting them to the winemaking community. In 2012 they started producing the TV show 'Wine Country at Work' which allowed them to more deeply explore topics that they found interesting. In 2021 they are publishing their first travel, rather than tour book, 'Wine Country in Shorts', which are the stories about the area that they have been telling over their shoulders for years. Two bonus chapters from that book are included here for your enjoyment! You can find their books and videos at: www.AmicisTours.com