Some Thoughts on Italy & Travel Choices

Something nice has happened today: a writer I follow, Shani Silver (of 'Every Single Day' fame), has decided that 2024 is the year when she will finally visit Rome. No longer waiting for the ideal partner to show up to make Italian travels a reality, her article 'My Italian Honeymoon' reveals that she has booked a flight to the capital and intends to enjoy it in its 'imperfect perfection'. 

Shani has done some introspection. In the past, she held the view that to do Italy "correctly" there had to be a fiancé to share the experience with. But what to do when Mr Right is not in sight, yet you still want to experience all that life has to offer? For Shani, allowing herself the mental space to enjoy Rome by herself is a defiant act of self-love, and I admire her for it. This was the final experience she had been saving up for Romance-land, and to emerge from such a category is about being mindful of the uncertainty and transience of life, and a determination to fully show up in it. 

Well done, Shani!

*

I was thinking about New York City as a potential travel destination. I have historically not been very enthusiastic about viewing it as such. It's not that I don't have any wish to see it - I'm sure it could make for a very interesting, educational, and even fun trip. It's just that my 2004-2005 experience with the US left me with a lot of trauma, and I don't want any old wounds to be re-opened by returning. 

I maintain an interest in alternative US culture. I'm interested in what subversive BIPOC, queer people and other minority groups have to offer the international sphere. But I have unhappy memories of American exceptionalism and its attendant arrogant insularity. I'm told NYC has a similar haughtiness for outsiders as I experienced in San Francisco around '05. 

So, at this moment, No - regardless of my curiosity about Lady Gaga and Madonna's hometown, the setting of 'Friends' and 'Sex and the City', and the wealth of art and culture to be found there, I keep finding other places much more lucrative. 

But so as not to end on a negation and a certainty, I will keep open the possibility that I might warm to New York, NY in the future.