Faces of Stapleton

Amore Fiori: Michelle Stefanon

While on vacation in Rome, Michelle Stefanon had an epiphany as she watched locals lingering and laughing with friends over coffee, savoring the pleasures of fresh flowers, fruits and vegetables. “Suddenly I saw how differently Italians approached life, work and family. I decided that life was too short not to be passionate about what I do, too.” And it was at that moment that the first seed of Amore Fiore—one of Stapleton’s very first retail shops—was planted.

After 13 years as an insurance claims adjuster, Michelle turned her life upside down. She enrolled in flower design school, worked part-time in flower shops—and in January 2004, used her life savings to set up her own retail flower shop in Stapleton’s East 29th Avenue Town Center. “The Town Center reminded me of the piazza in Rome. People can walk to it from their homes, meet friends for lunch and pick up fresh flowers. It’s the center of a walkable community.”

Today, Amore Fiori is in full bloom. Michelle and her fellow designer, Marcy Kennedy, spend their days at this charming Stapleton retail shop among people they know by name, chatting and watching their babies grow up. Saturday brings in the regulars. Like the couple who place their order before settling into pecan rolls at the sidewalk café. The young girl whose parents always let her choose the family’s flowers for the week. And all the folks who wave as they run their errands, poking their heads in to say they’re going for coffee—does anybody want anything?

“Recently I was at a party when it dawned on me that I knew every person there. They were all my customers,” Michelle says. “What I realized then, is that my customers have become my friends.” And that’s when she knew that the small-town warmth she’d dreamed of for her business had successfully taken root.