The Globe and Mail David Moscrop Published April 7, 2021 MANUEL SILVESTRI/Reuters From its first page, The Art of Hospitality: A European Odyssey promises to be a different kind of read: a stream of consciousness trip down memory lane as author Iqbal Ahmed recalls the places he’s been and the times that brought him there. He opens the book in Milan, Italy, by thinking of a street in London. Lombard Street takes us to Lombardy; the recent past of the author on a bicycle makes him think of the 12th century in northern Italy. Chapter after chapter, this volume –written during the pandemic from home – steps in for travel that neither the author, nor most of us, can undertake for now. Along the journey, past and present asides from Ahmed on various topics give life to the tale, as if the writer and reader were in delightful, meandering conversation while traveling along crowded streets or perched on a chair in a crowded café. All the while, the book returns to the hospitality industry and the workers, counting Ahmed himself as such for years, and their past, present, and future.