Guest
Despite having lived overseas for over 15 years I think the year just past was by far the hardest. Being 16,000 km away without knowing when and how I would be able to see my family, my friends and my country has been, and continues to be, a recurring thought in my mind; especially as Italy and Australia have experienced lockdowns and peaks of the pandemic at alternate moments. But following so closely the situation in Italy for several months also had the unexpected side effect of making me rediscover a love for my country. Rather than using my external point of view just to observe what is wrong with it, in this instance I was able to see with a fresh perspective many of the things that perhaps I have always taken for granted such as our love for food, design, fashion, ‘bon vivre’ and much more. This of course should NOT be placed in the repugnant rhetoric of glorifying one’s own culture to the detriment of others (a mentality that sadly seems to be increasingly popular recently) but in the co
