People of Montecito: Marlene Vitanza

What Did Opening a Shop in Montecito Mean to You?

I’ve been in this location for 37 years. My deceased husband and I had a shop in Santa Barbara 10 years prior to this. One morning, (my friend) called to say there was a little shop available in Montecito and maybe we would want to move out here. So, I proposed the idea to my husband and his response was, “Why would we want to move to Montecito when we have established ourselves in Santa Barbara?” My thought was, people who live in Montecito don’t go to Santa Barbara (and vice-versa). I kept bugging him and bugging him. Finally, he said if I wanted to do it, then do it but he didn’t want any part of it. We kept our Santa Barbara shop until he got ill many years later. We had a great marriage and a great life having the one shop, and little did I know, this would work out perfectly. It was neat because he could make his own decisions with that shop and I could make my own decisions here.

Marlene Vitanza, Peregrine Galleries