On a sunny October day, a small bus with 17 passengers left a mountain village in Italy, headed for the famed coastal town of Amalfi. The zigzagging road offered glimpses of spectacularly craggy cliffs, small red-roofed villages and the glittering Mediterranean. Inside the bus, increasingly raucous laughter, lots of loud chatter and the occasional whoop filled the air.
It wasn't a school field trip, a study-abroad program or a family reunion. Until the day before, most of the people had never met.
