Take Me Back

When international travel opens up again, make Italy your dream destination, says Michelle Coburn, who stockpiled enough incredible food experiences when in Rome, Florence and Venice to keep her spirit satisfied for over a year

-  Michelle Coburn

September 2020. I have been working from home in Cape Town for almost six months and the cabin fever is real when those Facebook memories start appearing. It is exactly a year since my Italian holiday. It feels like a lifetime ago.

Through my old posts, I relive what feels like every step, bite, drink and sight of that amazing trip. A favourite shot of my Plus One, a.k.a. The Carb Hunter, gazing fondly at the cone of crunchy, cheesy suppli classico he has bought from a market stall in Rome; the night we shared bistecca alla Fiorentina and a bottle of Chianti in Florence; our daily caffe and cornetti at Torrefazione Cannaregio in Venice. No social distancing. No masks. No COVID-19. No way could we have imagined how different all this would be just five months later. Deserted piazzas, shuttered osterias, hospitals overwhelmed.

I wonder if the places where we ate our hearts out still exist. Whether mamma Giovanna and