28 days have gone by so quickly yet I’ve had a rainbow of experiences and am ready to feed it forward into even longer trips. I was seriously depressed and bummed to come home. I could have gone on travelling forever. But now that I’m home it’s so great to speak english and be understood.
Loved
- Travel is just problem solving in exotic locations!
- Cafe life – Europe will give you hours of ring side seats on the best views in town for the price of a coffee.
- Time gives you the option to take the road less travelled. I’d’ve otherwise never seen the Lucca canals, the Modena farmers market, the Santo Spirito farmers market, the cloister courtyard at Santo Stefano in Bologna, the Cosmati tile at San Fernando, the winding walkway in Civita dB. And then the time to sketch it all.
- Making art is indeed a great way to see, experience, and remember the best of the world. It’s mindfulness (hyper awareness) with your hands.
- To fall in love with the world requires time for it to reveal itself to you, time to see the dawn and the turning of day into night. Time allows experiences to become emotions. Be jealous where you place your attention.
- You don’t need language fluency. You need the basics – hello, goodbye, numbers, please, thank you, sorry, pardon me, bathroom. You need nouns, inflection and body language. You need to be a good guesser of what they’re most likely trying to say based on context, then say it back to them for confirmation, they likely understand English better than you understand their language. (Intl travel for work for 20 years, primarily Asia)
- Neck leash for phone. Under-shirt passport holder (washable).
- Global Entry, zero line thru customs/immigration.
- Smart tag in luggage, see its location in the app. Peace of mind is priceless
Learned
- Don’t pack your fountain pens in the checked luggage. I was very lucky my new LAMY pen didn’t explode.
- Pack for weight and also size. Poly/wool clothing only; cotton is too heavy, no jeans, altho you need a few nice pieces. Otherwise washable underwear and socks, pants and tops are ideal.
- Buy toothpaste and other consumables as you go.
- Don’t hesitate to throw away things you won’t need later, are duplicates, or aren’t serving you (e.g. almost empty shampoo bottle at end of trip). Beware of the cost of shipping things home.
- Use Google Lens to translate labels to ensure what you’re buying is what you think it is (i bought contact lens cleaner thinking it was soaking solution)
- Know what you have to book early (fast train tickets)
- Try to stay no more than 20min from the train station if you want to walk with luggage.
- Allow for down days (“at sea” days) for recovery. Moving too fast is a trip not properly mentally digested.
- Book high end hotels periodically during the trip for laundry and concierge services, and hotel bars to explore local hooch.
- Made and reviewed lists to ensure I had my daily essentials with me every day, and that I took everything at checkout (chargers, closet items, etc). Learned to check around my spot before I left. Old person rules lol.
- Invest continually to minimize size of portable batteries, plug adapters, etc.
- Bring a nicer outfit, many countries are much more stylish than the perennially athleisure US which reads as uncouth. I have a vintage Eileen Fisher silk tee and a light sweater for my black Mountain Hardware slim leg nylon pants and lightweight Clarks sandals. Yeah old lady look.
- Never buy the first version you see – always shop around for best price no matter how good you think the price is.
- Being soft spoken and polite will get you very far.
Surprised by
- How much I loved Bologna, and how much I disliked Florence after being in Lucca, Civita, and Bologna.
- Slept better on the trip than I do at home, according to my sleep scores.
- Many of my Italy hotels had AC.
- Tap to pay is literally everywhere even in the 1 euro washrooms. Only encountered one washroom that took only coins (Orvieto train station).
- Food quality in Barcelona and Modena – oh my. The 72hr pizza crust, the ricotta, the wine, the carpaccio, the tiramisu…
- The depth, range, and quality of Italian wine that I will never find in the US.
- Seemed to almost catch a cold every 3 wk. Zinc tablets help me. Had stomach flu for a few days.
- Carrying a simple leather tote vs a backpack in Italy, more likely to be mistaken for a local vs tourist.
- I don’t get homesick. But I did miss my friends – and driving my car!
Didn’t love
* Italian customer service. I would applaud guiderails so that cities and residents are not chronically burned out, cuz there aren’t any controls now.
- Hotel soap and shampoo extremely harsh and drying. Hair dryers everywhere.
- Cost of hotels booked too late. I canNOT travel like this next time.
Cuz there WILL be a next time…and soon!
