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A trip is defined as a discovery of people,
places, and diverse culture from ours, it is not necessarily better
or worse but just different.
I say diverse to be sure that I will not misunderstood. In fact, I
often hear it being said “these are our habits, traditions, ideas
that are different from that place or that type of person from that
region”; the people who express that concept imply that “these
habits are strange or worse and are not good for us!!”
In my small country (Italy), being often conditioned, and for a
reason, by the great cultural diversity from the past within a few
kilometres, we frequently use “different” with the above meaning.
Without splitting hairs to find out where that is indeed true, I was
always bothered by the lack of speech, listening and first judging
without seeing: this is one of the main reasons I have spent 557
nights in 194 hostels ( I do not have any idea how many there are in
the world), Having not counted some hotels and other accommodations.
I dare say that extreme attitudes towards really diverse cultures
from ours, such as the generically speaking “oriental” as opposed to
our “occidental”, can be supported with extreme manners ( and I
consider extremes, one way or the other always wrong) by those who
have personally faced bad experiences especially in dramatic
situation such as war which brings out all the misery and
contradictions of both philosophies.
It is way to easy to refer to the two opposing mentalities of the
duo Fallaci-Terzani, curiously two prominent journalists coming from
the cradle of the same culture and common Italian language that is
Florence (but they’re very famous everywhere!).
Both of them open our eyes about just one things, but willing or
not, with their radical views, they have become the champions of
those two so-called school of thought.
I am one of first to recognize the faults in the American political
and military systems, nonetheless I always defend America from the
anti-Americanism from those of which, 90% of the case, have never
travelled or lived in 36 of the 50 states like I did, and discover
another America of surprisingly naivety.
Therefore, I do not pretend to claim certainties but I am likely
influenced by what I read or heard, since my opinions always come
from direct and personal experience having seen the Soviet Union
before it became Russia.
I also have visited several countries of the so-called Eastern
Europe, and as regards the Asian world, what is considered
considered “the largest democracy of the planet”: India, which has a
history in itself.
And mother Africa is a continent where I have always seen the few
virtues and many defects of human being amplified.
Finally, I have not overlooked the vision of a whole world in one
place, a model of society which is not possible in America any more
because homogenization makes every culture look the same.
I rather refer to Australia: in this country, considered the new
real world, the slight prevalence of asian people gave me the
perfect vision of a world which is both capitalist, in work and
social efficiency,, and oriental in life harmony ( I am proud to say
that the prominent western culture in that country is Italian ).
To try to understand countries I have travelled as much as possible,
looking at how people change from small to large cities, above all
using their means of transport and sleeping almost always in the
international hostels where they are many travellers from all parts
of the world (but definitely and invariably “occidental” ) who have
opened my eyes and heart about people of my same age who listen and
see as I do, but are children of a different culture.
My grandmother was in this respect of great inspiration to me, since
she was a real traveller in a time when travelling was hardly
conceived as a means to complete one’s own personality and people
mostly travelled just for the need of survival to richer countries
with more opportunities.
Italy has gone a log way since then to allow its children to be
second most travelled people in Europe for “tourism” ( it is a
statistic I read somewhere ).
We can interpret this statistic: according to me, everybody in Italy
travels with an inclusive travel package because we are not used to
logistic difficulties (aren’t we the so-called mama’s boys, the
country where at thirty years of age we are still living with our
parents?!) and the school’s refusal, for linguistic heritage and
lack of habit, to teach the language of travellers, English.
Having said that, I just want to explain that maybe other European
nations produce an higher ratio of travellers that can move around
easier on their own without tourist packages.
I have already mentioned 194 hostels that I have seen around the
world (for a total of 557 nights) and I have done an approximate
estimate of 2500-2600 total nights of travel time, that is sleeping
in trains, buses and airplanes.
A hostel is usually half occupied by English travellers, often very
young, and then all the others among which the Australians stand
out, considering the distance of their country and their low
population (there are just 18 million inhabitants in that enormous
country, that would mean that all the youngsters are travelling
around the world!).
The lonely American motels along the road are yet another part of my
life.
I will save you from my first years of travels of course with my
parents, almost always in little summer villages and the mountains
in the winter (which I hated because of the cold), or Paris, France
for my mother’s work and Milan, Italy for my father’s work.
The USA I saw for the fist time without knowing a single word of
English and inevitably as a tourist (which I made up in the
following years).
Egypt, so original and different, is what started giving me the
drive to travel and see other places and fascinating cultures.
Just a preliminary remark: I find it very difficult to travel with a
tourist package, one really needs to do it on one’s own or with a
partner with the same age and with a skill for the languages and a
strong motivation.
Otherwise, one goes on holiday and, although I say that with much
respect, one misunderstands “leaving for travelling”. Without
indulging in the everlasting debate between travellers and tourists,
I would say that as far as I am concerned, as it is always with
human affairs, the best is in the middle.
I always carry my still and video cameras. As you can see, I follow
the technological progresses keeping an on-line diary or simply
updating with emails as I have done since I left for my world trip
in 2000.
I have done all that with freedom which should not be misunderstood
for recklessness: I collect information on the countries, visas,
vaccines, places more or less accessible, but I then let my instinct
guide me.
Except for food, which is usually try before in ethnic restaurants
in Italy but reminding me myself that, since I mostly choose to
travel alone, stomach problems would case me to miss a trip, health
and money without the aid of anyone (I have seen many English
travellers in the local emergency rooms, far too many to be one of
those cases!)
An example of what I mean by freedom is the fact that I have never
booked an accommodation although I gathered information about
various hostels before leaving (what if than I did not like it or it
cost too much with respect of the quality, or yet still if I did not
arrive in time or had to stop somewhere else?!) You will find
stories when I had to sleep in a house for some reason. At most a
night here or there and by day a bed is certainly impossible to
find. That actually almost never happened to me because I like to
see a place “alive” (that is when people are up) and I believe there
only one place in the world which lives day and night (and where in
fact I went around without caring about the schedule of the sunrise
or sunset): New York City, “the city that never sleep”, which is one
of the best definitions of the “Big Apple”, it is best defined as
the most American city of the world and the most European city in
America. This is usually said of Boston, but please let us not
confuse the Anglo-Saxon culture with the European one!!
Enjoy
the stories and photos of my travels!
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