JENNIFER OPENSHAW had been walking for hours before she settled into a cafe on a side street in Florence. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, she wore no makeup and she had on sweat pants, a T-shirt and sneakers. Though weary from the walking, she contentedly began eating a mocha gelato.

“I was just relishing the moment of being there,” said Ms. Openshaw, 42, of the solo trip to Italy she took in October 2005, a few months after an 11-year engagement ended.

Her reverie was interrupted when another tourist sat down. “Boy, am I hungry,” declared Durant Schwimmer, who noticed Ms. Openshaw reading a guidebook as he dived into a ham sandwich.

Silently hoping he wasn’t talking to her, Ms. Openshaw tried not to acknowledge his overture. “The last thing I wanted to do in Italy was start talking to another American,” she said.

Ms. Openshaw is an entrepreneur described by friends as a savvy, driven, tenacious “ball of fire.” She is the host of “Winning Advice,” on ABC Radio, and the author of “The Millionaire Zone: Seven Winning Steps to a Seven-Figure Fortune” (Hyperion).

She was still semi-ignoring Mr. Schwimmer when he told her he was vacationing alone for the first time since his 20-year marriage had ended in divorce. But when the lopsided conversation turned to business, Ms. Openshaw perked up.

Mr. Schwimmer, 50, an investment banker known as Randy, is the senior managing director for Churchill Financial in New York. He is as unflappable as he is creative. He plays guitar, sings and writes poetry. Ms. Openshaw mentioned financial products for consumers she was developing and Mr. Schwimmer offered catchy names for them.

The gelato and ham sandwich were long gone, and to thank him for his ideas, Ms. Openshaw, who was now not so put off, invited him for drinks later.

Mr. Schwimmer, who hadn’t had a date in more than two decades, was unprepared. “I did not go to Italy looking for romance,” he said. But he quickly went shopping for a cashmere sweater and cologne.

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Source: NY Times