i visited maria merante palmieri in her apartment over the gift shop. grazie, grazie, che piacere! maria's father owned a popular italian grocery story, and she followed in his footsteps, by opening her gift shop. >> it's a small place. we sell typical italian things. because those things weren't available to us, we tried to bring those things to pittsburgh. >> so, maria, how did you end in bloomfield, and how did you end in this beautiful setting? because here, you know, i feel the vibes of the italian immigrants. and this house is so wonderful. it's so reminiscent. >> we love it here. i don't like to say that we remodeled it, but we restored it. >> lidia: now the immigrants, they missed so much their italy, that they kind of tried to bring it in whichever way -- by pictures, by paintings, and so on. so this is really very, very reminiscent. >> they're the things we grew up with, that we remember from my grandmother, from my aunt, from my dad. >> i understand that also you were the first generation to go to college from your family. tell me how did that feel? how did your parents,