This is such a lovely essay, Danielle! Complimenti!
It filled me with nostalgia for my own travels from the Before Times, in Europe and in South America. I still have friendships with people I met back then, and I learned fundamental truths about the world and myself that I still draw from. I loved not worrying about the simple challenge of arriving in some town with no idea where I’d sleep, usually finding a hostel, maybe someone’s couch, or a handful of times under a tree.
I generally embrace new technologies. I like that Substack, for example, exists. That I can write this comment from my neighborhood coffee bar. That I can get my veterinarian’s advice for my dog, Mocha, just by sending a photo of where she scratched herself, or that I can pay rent with a few clicks, or do a television interview from my living room.
But right now I’m having a hard time thinking of a way travel has clearly improved compared to the Before Times.
Yes, I try very hard not to be a curmudgeon, but I was so completely present to every new place and situation largely because there was no other choice. (And that has made all the difference.)
I love this!!! I’m even older, but Before Sunrise is one of my favorite films. I went to Canada and America in the early 80s with my boyfriend with a phone number in my pocket and took a greyhound bus non-stop from NY to Santa Cruz with barely any money.
I met a boy in Florence and we took a train to Venice within an hour so he could show me his favorite place in the world!
The freedom, right? I often think that if my mother could have tracked my location on an iPhone, so many of the best experiences of my life never would have happened.
The freedom, for sure! And writing letters was so nice, so much nicer than sending emails. And although I keep telling myself I must switch back to writing letters, so far I haven’t. Do you?
My trip to the US was a bit scary and reckless, tbh!! I guess I was trying to prove something. The memories are priceless, though, of course. I wrote a whole series of posts on Substack about my “adventures” a couple of years ago - it’s the Rock Chick series (I was living with a wannabe rock star!)
I love (& endorse) every word of this! I just spent a few days in Venice meandering in her furthest corners in blissful silence. Even in a place that truly battles with the very worst of overtourism, it is possible. (I have been to Acciaroli, it is so so lovely)
I think I am definitely part of the 'Before Sunrise" generation (brilliant name for it by the way). Not only did I love that movie, but I also prefer the pre-internet travel style. It's probably one of the reasons I hardly plan anything on my trips (border logistics aside). I'm going to go one step further on the next one... 30 days in China with no real internet, social media, Substack, or email access. Might just be like stepping back in time to 1999.
The tough part about replicating '90s-style travel is that you really do need to make a lot of plans ahead of time. You really can't show up in Rome or Venice and just wing it. It upsets me that even when I'm home in New York, I can't spontaneously decide to go to the Frick or the MoMA, which are the great rewards for living in such an expensive place. The China trip will be like fasting!
As I’m about to head to NYC at the end of the month, what plans do I need to make to visit the Frick and MOMA? I wasn’t aware I couldn’t just purchase tickets.
Interesting, I haven't been to Europe for a while. I still travel a fair bit (about to do 10 weeks from Vietnam to Pakistan overland) but mostly Asia. I don't plan my travels much at all. It's something I wrote about recently. How I like my cities cold like my coffee, no itinerary, and no preconceptions to dilute them... I just let them show me who they are in the moment.
Great post. When my twenty something kids excitedly told me how we could keep in touch and know where we all are, at all times, they were a bit dumbfounded when I refused. I sent them to their dad who said the same! I explained that it feels like an invasion of privacy. Like the Eden you describe, I’ll often just wander and I don’t know where I’m going to be! The thought of someone tracking that feels intrusive. They don’t get it, it’s a mindset change!
Oh, good for you. I think it's so important for young adults to really feel their freedom in a world with so much built-in anxiety. I really thank God I had that opportunity.
I need to read this every day. It's become so hard to just wander. There's that fear that you'll miss important landmarks or, more importantly, food. Experience has taught me that I'll never see everything, so maybe slow down and really see what's in front of me now.
You're not alone. When I tell my clients to leave time in the itinerary for a "walk and wander" day, most of them panic, even though most of them came of age before the Internet. We are so conditioned to optimize everything that it kind of breaks my heart.
So evergreen, Danielle. And makes me so nostalgic for those Let’s Go days. Having to stand in line at the post office to call home once in a while during my 80s school year in Florence, or queue up at Amex to see if you had mail. And all the uncrowded places!
Recently we pulled out an old Eyewitness guide to start thinking about our next trip. It feels so vintage and…quiet!
Quiet and low pressure. Like choosing from a catalogue instead of putting something in your digital shopping cart and getting pop-ups to tell you how many other people are looking at it. We really are exposed to so many micro-stressors.
Beautifully written. I lived in a very non-touristy part of Italy for some years and loved discovering it. The phenomenon of "photographs well but feels bad" is exactly what happens, eventually, to a place that photographs spectacularly well and initially feels wonderful, then once it's overused...the opposite. Your post is just a great reminder of how to travel!
I had that experience in Ravello recently. It was November, so pretty quiet, but it just felt...chewed up. Yet every time I picked up my phone to take a picture, the image I saw in the frame was stunning.
Spot on. I will never forget my first night of study abroad in Florence, January 1992. Just wandering around a quiet city and being awestruck by the beauty of the buildings at night, not knowing what was around each corner. Trying to figure out how to give this feeling to my (jaded by the Internet) children...
Florence in 1992...a dream. My aunt often speaks of Florence in 1965, when the only tourists were on bus tours, and you could walk into the Duomo or the Accademia as freely as you could into any shop.
Love this. I so agree and loved your storytelling. I'm so glad I lived in a very not touristy place (a privilege). I tried to avoid the tourists this summer and spent most of my time in Umbria or Trieste. Next time, Abruzzo!
Venice is filled with crowds trying to get that perfect instagram picture in front of a known landmark but if you go right or left around the crowd you are welcomed with quiet walks.
First of all, Before Sunset is my absolute favourite movie of all time, followed by Before Sunrise. Naturally, when I saw the title, I knew I had to read this. The part where you talk about how much cheaper it is to travel now, but how much more expensive it is to enjoy it is so true. Loved this piece!
This is such a lovely essay, Danielle! Complimenti!
It filled me with nostalgia for my own travels from the Before Times, in Europe and in South America. I still have friendships with people I met back then, and I learned fundamental truths about the world and myself that I still draw from. I loved not worrying about the simple challenge of arriving in some town with no idea where I’d sleep, usually finding a hostel, maybe someone’s couch, or a handful of times under a tree.
I generally embrace new technologies. I like that Substack, for example, exists. That I can write this comment from my neighborhood coffee bar. That I can get my veterinarian’s advice for my dog, Mocha, just by sending a photo of where she scratched herself, or that I can pay rent with a few clicks, or do a television interview from my living room.
But right now I’m having a hard time thinking of a way travel has clearly improved compared to the Before Times.
Sometimes we over-romnticize the past. But I feel the same way ....
Yes, I try very hard not to be a curmudgeon, but I was so completely present to every new place and situation largely because there was no other choice. (And that has made all the difference.)
Nothing wrong with being a selective curmudgeon! At least that's what I tell myself. People who seem jaded about everything are boring, though.
I love this!!! I’m even older, but Before Sunrise is one of my favorite films. I went to Canada and America in the early 80s with my boyfriend with a phone number in my pocket and took a greyhound bus non-stop from NY to Santa Cruz with barely any money.
I met a boy in Florence and we took a train to Venice within an hour so he could show me his favorite place in the world!
Beautiful essay ❤️
The freedom, right? I often think that if my mother could have tracked my location on an iPhone, so many of the best experiences of my life never would have happened.
The freedom, for sure! And writing letters was so nice, so much nicer than sending emails. And although I keep telling myself I must switch back to writing letters, so far I haven’t. Do you?
My trip to the US was a bit scary and reckless, tbh!! I guess I was trying to prove something. The memories are priceless, though, of course. I wrote a whole series of posts on Substack about my “adventures” a couple of years ago - it’s the Rock Chick series (I was living with a wannabe rock star!)
I don't write letters, but I am still a committed city wanderer.
At least moms never change lol
I love (& endorse) every word of this! I just spent a few days in Venice meandering in her furthest corners in blissful silence. Even in a place that truly battles with the very worst of overtourism, it is possible. (I have been to Acciaroli, it is so so lovely)
The northern lagoon is truly the best part!
I think I am definitely part of the 'Before Sunrise" generation (brilliant name for it by the way). Not only did I love that movie, but I also prefer the pre-internet travel style. It's probably one of the reasons I hardly plan anything on my trips (border logistics aside). I'm going to go one step further on the next one... 30 days in China with no real internet, social media, Substack, or email access. Might just be like stepping back in time to 1999.
The tough part about replicating '90s-style travel is that you really do need to make a lot of plans ahead of time. You really can't show up in Rome or Venice and just wing it. It upsets me that even when I'm home in New York, I can't spontaneously decide to go to the Frick or the MoMA, which are the great rewards for living in such an expensive place. The China trip will be like fasting!
As I’m about to head to NYC at the end of the month, what plans do I need to make to visit the Frick and MOMA? I wasn’t aware I couldn’t just purchase tickets.
Best to buy them ahead of time, sadly.
Interesting, I haven't been to Europe for a while. I still travel a fair bit (about to do 10 weeks from Vietnam to Pakistan overland) but mostly Asia. I don't plan my travels much at all. It's something I wrote about recently. How I like my cities cold like my coffee, no itinerary, and no preconceptions to dilute them... I just let them show me who they are in the moment.
Great post. When my twenty something kids excitedly told me how we could keep in touch and know where we all are, at all times, they were a bit dumbfounded when I refused. I sent them to their dad who said the same! I explained that it feels like an invasion of privacy. Like the Eden you describe, I’ll often just wander and I don’t know where I’m going to be! The thought of someone tracking that feels intrusive. They don’t get it, it’s a mindset change!
Oh, good for you. I think it's so important for young adults to really feel their freedom in a world with so much built-in anxiety. I really thank God I had that opportunity.
I need to read this every day. It's become so hard to just wander. There's that fear that you'll miss important landmarks or, more importantly, food. Experience has taught me that I'll never see everything, so maybe slow down and really see what's in front of me now.
You're not alone. When I tell my clients to leave time in the itinerary for a "walk and wander" day, most of them panic, even though most of them came of age before the Internet. We are so conditioned to optimize everything that it kind of breaks my heart.
So evergreen, Danielle. And makes me so nostalgic for those Let’s Go days. Having to stand in line at the post office to call home once in a while during my 80s school year in Florence, or queue up at Amex to see if you had mail. And all the uncrowded places!
Recently we pulled out an old Eyewitness guide to start thinking about our next trip. It feels so vintage and…quiet!
Quiet and low pressure. Like choosing from a catalogue instead of putting something in your digital shopping cart and getting pop-ups to tell you how many other people are looking at it. We really are exposed to so many micro-stressors.
Yesssss❤️
Beautifully written. I lived in a very non-touristy part of Italy for some years and loved discovering it. The phenomenon of "photographs well but feels bad" is exactly what happens, eventually, to a place that photographs spectacularly well and initially feels wonderful, then once it's overused...the opposite. Your post is just a great reminder of how to travel!
I had that experience in Ravello recently. It was November, so pretty quiet, but it just felt...chewed up. Yet every time I picked up my phone to take a picture, the image I saw in the frame was stunning.
Lovely read! Now, if only we could apply this to daily life...
It's impossible to shed digital life altogether, but we can definitely choose to get lost more often and stop thinking we need to optimize everything.
Spot on. I will never forget my first night of study abroad in Florence, January 1992. Just wandering around a quiet city and being awestruck by the beauty of the buildings at night, not knowing what was around each corner. Trying to figure out how to give this feeling to my (jaded by the Internet) children...
Florence in 1992...a dream. My aunt often speaks of Florence in 1965, when the only tourists were on bus tours, and you could walk into the Duomo or the Accademia as freely as you could into any shop.
Love this. I so agree and loved your storytelling. I'm so glad I lived in a very not touristy place (a privilege). I tried to avoid the tourists this summer and spent most of my time in Umbria or Trieste. Next time, Abruzzo!
Bravo! well said xx
Venice is filled with crowds trying to get that perfect instagram picture in front of a known landmark but if you go right or left around the crowd you are welcomed with quiet walks.
what a great opening anecdote. Lovely
First of all, Before Sunset is my absolute favourite movie of all time, followed by Before Sunrise. Naturally, when I saw the title, I knew I had to read this. The part where you talk about how much cheaper it is to travel now, but how much more expensive it is to enjoy it is so true. Loved this piece!
Thank you and yes Before Sunset is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Fabulous movies and sentiments- I am glad I was there before the throngs of camera -wielding tourists.