I went to Italy when I was young, and of course remembered the extraordinary visual experiences of the landscape and architecture. But when I returned twenty years later, one of the first things that struck me as I got off the plane was a powerful smell of Italian coffee, followed by many other memory-laden fragrances — the fruits and flowers grown in lava-rich soil and stacked hign on street vending stands, the wood-fired oven baked bread, the streets with centuries-old earth and mold packed between the paving stones, the aroma of the different European cigarettes, cosmetics and perfumes as you pass by in a crowd...
Certain smells takes me back to a place almost as vivid as it was in real-time. Amazing what a smell can accomplish.