ON TOP OF THE WORLD
“Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone,” wrote author John Steinbeck in an article for the May 1953 issue of . It was a sentiment that seemed apposite to the whole of Italy during those eerie first months of the pandemic, when we were confined to our homes for all but a daily walk. I clung on to memories of holidays gone by—exploring Rome’s architectural wonders, eating creamy gelato while getting lost in Venice and spending lazy afternoons drinking Aperol by the pool at a wedding in Tuscany. And so, when the FCO confirmed that travel was once again permitted,
