Slow down...Travel
Slow down travel...can we please? We were on our seventh day in Hawaii, seeing the sights, driving the islands when my husband innocently asked when were we going to go lie on a beach. I felt like the cartoon where the woman slaps her forehead and exclaims, “Oh my goodness, I went to Hawaii and forgot to go lie on a beach!” I’m one of those people who buys the guide book, reads it and plans the things for us to see and do on our trips. In a way, I do it because I’m afraid that if I don’t, we’ll miss the important sights and we won’t have a good experience. Where is the slow down movement when you need it? But in over-planning our vacations, I’m afraid that instead of coming back from vacation rested and recharged, sometimes we come back cranky and exhausted. How about just traveling to slow cities?
Last year, we went to Italy for three weeks. Since this was a “once in a lifetime” kind of trip, I went into planning overdrive - forgetting all about slow down travel. Researching where to go, what to see, what to do and how to do it! We went to Venice, Tuscany and Rome. In Tuscany, we stayed for a week at a converted farmhouse. Venice was beautiful and Rome was a revelation but what did we enjoy the most? The week we stayed in Tuscany being lazy fools. In fact, one day we had a choice: go to Florence for the day (which would entail a 1 1/2 hr drive each way) and see all the museums, including Michelangelo’s "David" OR stay in our farmhouse lying around, going for a walk in the country and reading. This was an easy decision for my husband, not so easy for me. I mean, isn't’t seeing "David" on some 1000 things-to-do list for Life? Well, I’m here to report that I never saw Florence or "David" and I’m okay with it. I’ve seen lots of pictures of him and I even had a refrigerator magnet of him once. I’ve come to terms with the fact that there’s many things that I won’t get checked off on that list and yet I still have a great life. In fact, checking things off does not necessarily lead to greater happiness. Sometimes, not checking something off does!
This year, for our vacation, we’re staying closer to home. In fact, we might just go somewhere and do nothing. That's our way to slow down travel as part of the slow down movement.