Chip Stites

Alfred W. “Chip” Stites After 38 years in the financial services industry Chip and his wife Shonna Kelso, retired to central Italy where they make their home in Rieti. As a Certified Financial Planner® having managed over 700 million dollars of client money for a major financial institution and working with hundreds of clients to make their retirement years comfortable, his love of making the complicated simple and the intricate easy has shifted to making the intricacies of travel, writing, photography, food, and wine…simple and easy. Both Chip and Shonna have learned through their travels that the most interesting and exciting trips are not found in major tourist attractions but in the quiet back streets, small towns, local food, wine and in the people, who present them. In Rieti Italy, they have found just such a town, where they are the only Americans they know of. Currently, they spend their time learning the language, history, and customs of their adopted country. They have two grandchildren, a daughter and son-in-law, and a dog named, Frankie.