In the aftermath of the pandemic, travel media has become saturated with scenes from Italy. The perennial nature of this trend – going strong since the Grand Tour of the seventeenth century – demonstrates that plenty of people can never get enough of daydreaming about the Bel Paese. Some, however, have had more than enough.

The recent polarization of Italy as a focus of travel and culinary media alike is self-perpetuating; the more Italy is flattened to a mere background for selfies, rom-coms, and television shows that center American celebrities, the more the culture and cuisine are flattened and falsified into a caricature of what they truly are.