One of Melinda Kosteski's most vivid childhood memories involves the smell of bread from her grandmother's oven.
She'd eat it after school, buttered or filled with homemade salami.
"Simple, warm and fresh - I didn't realise then just how special it was," she says.
"My mum remembers the same thing from her own childhood with her Nonni - warm bread filled with fresh tomato, extra virgin olive oil and oregano. Different generation, different filling, same memory."
On a rainy Tuesday morning, Ms Kosteski's mind is back in sundrenched Florence, when, on a holiday there as an adult, she discovered schiacciata - fresh Tuscan bread sliced open and filled with produce.
Like so much of the best Italian food, it was uncomplicated - just a few good ingredients thrown together.
But she remembers wondering even then - why don't we have this back home?
And so, she came up with her own version of the perfect Italian sandwich, and launched Fresca in Queanbeyan.
That was about 18 months ago, and now she's preparing to launch the second iteration in Civic.
Located in a freestanding kiosk in City West on Marcus Clarke Street, Fresca will be serving sandwiches Monday to Friday, with schiacciata baked in house - "creating a crisp outside, light and airy centre and that beautiful chew you find in Italy" - and stuffed with a variety of Italian specialties.
Think crema di pistachio, mortadella, stracciatella, pesto, prosciutto and tartufo di pecorino. There's also eggplant, creamed potato and fennel, part of a refreshed menu for the city crowd.
Fresca will join a growing precinct in a previously quiet part of Civic, close to the ANU campus, and surrounded by offices and apartments. It's right by No Name Lane and Harvest, across the road from Terra and a convenient stop-off for many students and office workers.
Because of this, Ms Kosteski will also be trialling Friday night drinks, and will hopefully soon have a covered outdoor area.
Try the coffee too - from the Melbourne brand Zest - along with sweet treats made by Ms Kosteski's mum.
Ms Kosteski has placed her nonna - now 91 years old and counting - at the centre of her menu, including her actual headscarfed image in the Fresca signage.
She comes from a large Italian family with Calabrian roots, and Nonna Rosa is the matriarch. Kosteski describes her grandmother's journey to Australia at the age of 19, one of 10 children, as a common Australian migrant story, but with stories of kindness and community that have become part of the family lore.
And like so many migrant families, Nonna Rosa's family became entrenched in the local community themselves.
"They worked on projects including the Lake Burley Griffin fountain and Snowy Hydro, and built businesses of their own, from fruit shops and restaurants to the building industry," she says.
"Looking at it now, it seems only natural that I would eventually follow a similar path."
Ms Kosteski is now part of the family behind Pronto Italian restaurant in Queanbeyan and Weston.
With Fresca, she's surfing the wave of a recent sandwich revival in Canberra - and especially the city centre - that hasn't come a moment too soon.
She's adamant that while Fresca has a different offering to, say, Sanducci just up the road, she's not trying to reinvent either the sandwich or Italian food.
"Fresh, warm schiacciata. Your choice of quality Italian deli meat. That's it," she says.
"We're going back to what I grew up with - good bread, good produce, simplicity and food made with love."
But she's also trying to recapture the experience she had in Florence. It's a vision worth conjuring up while on your Canberra lunch break.
Fresca opens in the city on Monday, August 31.
