We met in 2012 while both working in Abu Dhabi in the UAE and decided to emigrate to Australia in 2013 to leave our technical and tourism careers behind to start a new culinary and creative adventure together.

We started with hosting a series of pop-up cultural dining events during local food and wine festivals in the Orange region of New South Wales, Australia.

It ultimately took seven years to achieve Paolo’s vision of opening a ‘restaurant not a restaurant’ in regional Australia. Antica Australis opened its doors in March 2020 (just three weeks before the global pandemic).

Antica Australis was recognised with an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat just six months after we were able to re-open in June 2020. It was awarded ‘Outstanding Business of the Year’ for the Orange region and achieved Gold for ‘Excellence in Tourism’ and ‘Excellence in Hospitality’ in 2021 and in 2022 received a Bronze award recognition from Destination NSW as one of the top tourism restaurants in New South Wales.

We presented Antica Australis over a weekend as part of the Ras Al Khaimah Art 2023 Festival in the incredible heritage village of Al Jazeera Al Hamra - and we are thrilled to return for an entire month for the 2024 edition!

Additionally, we are re-launching our cultural travel experiences to Paolo’s home region of Ciociaria in central Italy from 2024 under our Antica Travel Co. brand. We hosted several small tour groups over three years prior to the pandemic, so we are very much looking forward to being able to share our carefully curated off-the-beaten path experiences in the Wild Heart of Italy once more.

We are also very much looking forward to wherever the winds of destiny may take us next!

Paolo & Kelly Picarazzi