“Put down the map and get wonderfully lost. – Random meme on Pinterest
Luca has a friend, Yuri (Russian born but grew up and currently lives in Canada) who is visiting for the week. He arrived late last night. They met on the El Camino de Santiago in 2020 but they haven’t seen each other since. Pilgrims are a special bunch that seem to never truly lose touch.
Since Luca had to work today Yuri and I hung out in the city center until he was finished. On our 15 minute walk to the tram we discussed our previous travels and “how did we ever get anywhere without Google maps and cell phones?” Seriously, I think about living in Prague in 2002 and how the Lonely Planet guidebook was our saving grace. The dial up Internet cafes were useless except to send an email back every few days to our families to let them know that we were still alive. Every restaurant we dined in was a gamble because there were no online reviews. We only consciously went to the major attractions that were promoted with traditional advertising or we’d heard about in history class. Now Instagram and TikTok have put places on our bucket lists that we have never even heard of until someone made a reel and added a cutesy hashtag. It feels like the world is much more accessible. People are traveling more and more…which I think is amazing! However, one drawback that I’ve noticed is sometimes we (meaning me) are so focused on finding the most beautiful and perfect place to take our next photo or the popular spot that “everyone goes to” that we (meaning me) miss the fortune that could be found by being lost. The adventures that Squint and I had along with our other study abroad friends 20 years ago were so exciting and thrilling. We had zero idea what we were doing or where we were going. We would call random hostels out of the guidebook, make a reservation (hopefully), and it would take us hours to find the place…but along the way we would notice interesting places and ask random strangers for the next clue on our treasure hunt. It was great fun. Now I feel like so many of us (meaning me) are starting at our phones and following the little line on the map, all the while missing the hidden gems that are really right in front of our (meaning my) faces. So that’s it, I’ve made a decision. I’m going to start getting lost more. On days when I go into the city without an agenda I’m just going to start walking in a random direction and see what turns up. I’m going to turn off the phone, lift up my head and really be in the moment. I’ll report back what I discover. Stay tuned.
There was one moment today when Luca, Yuri and I were walking to a restaurant for lunch where I stopped and noticed the light. It was casting a beautiful glow on the street. A man sitting at a café table on the sidewalk had a soft silhouette surrounding him. I thought about taking a photo but I decided to take a snapshot in my memory instead. It was one of those rare moments in time that I will think of fondly when I look back on my time in Florence. It kind of took my breath away. The air was still, the light and shadows were perfect and all felt right with the world. It was brief but profound. ❤️
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I learned something new last week. Daylight Saving Time ended here in Europe yesterday (Sunday) morning…but it doesn’t end in the US until Nov. 6th. Weird but true.
From what I’ve witnessed, most people in (Florence) Italy don’t celebrate or even acknowledge Halloween. I saw only a few kids dressed up in costumes today walking around the city center. None of the stores were decorated except for the Hard Rock Cafe. Oh you American chain stores never let me down.
Luca said Halloween is becoming a little more popular but apparently people didn’t celebrate it at all when he was growing up in the 80’s & 90’s in Crema (in Northern Italy). So in an effort to share a little bit of my culture, we carved pumpkins this weekend. Luca wanted to carve a traditional pumpkin face “like in the American movies” – and I carved the bats. I think they turned out great! All of it was drawn freehand and no fingers were chopped off so I consider this a successful activity. Happy Halloween! 🎃
Goodnight and much love from Italy. 🇮🇹