Transplants by Laura Peruchi - Conversations With Women Thriving Abroad #22 She is more Afraid of a Flat Life Than of Risk | Consuelo Cantisani | Italy → South Africa
Feb 10, 2026
Consuelo Cantisani, an Italian-born language teacher turned entrepreneur in Cape Town, runs a Brazilian coffee import business and speaks several languages. She recounts leaving a small village to build a life in London, then choosing reinvention in South Africa. The conversation covers migration, identity, entrepreneurship, bringing family into a business, and choosing risk over a “flat” life.
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Language Opens Cultural Doors
- Traveling with her father and early exposure to other cultures seeded Consuelo's desire to learn languages.
- She says language is a mirror of culture and learning it opens access to people's lives.
Combine Study And Work For Faster Growth
- Go where opportunities let you work and study simultaneously if you want rapid growth.
- Consuelo used London to study, train as an interpreter, and gain practical experience at once.
A Holiday That Became Home
- After ten hectic years in London Consuelo visited Cape Town and felt she would return.
- Two years later she moved there planning six months but stayed about 15 years, calling it another home.