I admire your bold attitude to tackle something that you are not familiar with (a foreign country) as your primary setting. Particularly when the stories are exposed to a wide range of audience who would potentially  scrutinize the details of the scenes and history (from the native Italians to those who have merely visited Italy). Did you have specific ideas on which parts of Italy you wanted to use in your stories before going there to do the research? What would you do if you decide to add a scene while writing your book and you realize that you lack details of that venue? 