The Honorary Italian
Hi there,
Some travelers come home from Italy with photographs and a few souvenirs. Others come home with a moka pot, strong opinions about tomatoes, a favorite café they still talk about, and a suspicious habit of checking airfare back to Rome.
Those are the Honorary Italians.
Claire and Tom are both American, and both insist they should probably go somewhere new next time. Spain sounds wonderful. Portugal too. Greece is definitely on the list.
And yet, somehow, Italy keeps winning.
Claire is the sentimental one. She saves café receipts, remembers exactly where they ate “that pasta,” and keeps photographs of laundry hanging between old buildings because she thinks even the laundry is beautiful there.
Tom is more subtle. He claims he is simply practical, while somehow knowing which train connection is easiest, where to get decent coffee near the station, and which Italian town they “probably should” visit next.
Claire romanticizes Italy. Tom operationalizes it. Neither of them is fooling anyone.
On their fourth trip, they return to a small Tuscan town they visited two years earlier. There is no famous landmark they need to see. No checklist. What they really want is surprisingly ordinary: the café they remember, the streets they recognize, the restaurant table with the good evening light.
Then Lucia, the woman behind the café counter, looks up and says, “Claire!”
She turns to Tom and adds, “And Tom. No sugar.”
That tiny moment means more to them than another photograph in front of a monument ever could.
They have not just returned to see Italy again.
They have returned to a place that remembers them.
That is when a destination starts becoming something more than a destination.
Maybe you know someone like Claire or Tom. Maybe it is your spouse, your sister, your best friend, or the couple who always seems to be either just back from Italy or quietly planning the next trip.
Or maybe it is you.
Maybe you have your own café, your own favorite neighborhood, your own meal that no restaurant at home has ever quite recreated. Maybe you already know the pleasure of going back to a place instead of always looking for somewhere new.
I wrote the full story of Claire and Tom because I have a feeling a few of you will recognize yourselves in it.
Read The Honorary Italian →
And if someone came to mind while you were reading this, send it to them and ask one question:
Do you recognize yourself?
Tami Roberts
Prime Tee Supply
P.S. I also pulled together a few shirts for the Honorary Italian in your life, including the one who insists they are absolutely going somewhere new next year. We’ll see.
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