A lot of things are getting “reconsidered” and “reimagined” during or after the pandemic. If limitations make artists more creative, then the constraints that we face also can have this transformative power in our lives. Maybe a reminder that we need less, or different, to be happy.
The first trip that involves a flight and going to another country since what feels like forever. I find myself re-learning the essentials. The airport felt very new. It is new, technically — and old, also technically. First time I was flying from Berlin Brandenburg Airport, thirty years in the making. It’s not as bad as people try to picture it, but nothing special in terms of architecture either. Probably more comfortable than both its predecessors. The airport procedures felt somewhat foreign, like maybe the first times you were flying, all by yourself, and you know the theory, but are going through the practice for the first time.
I’m now in Venice, the city that’s very dramatic all in itself, it’s as if there’s no border between the museums and the streets. I’m learning to take in a foreign city, and enjoy the things that are not available to me at home — water public transport, and the general closeness of water, one of them.
How to vacation? I’m used to overdoing it. Some people (and I was one of them) think that after a proper vacation you come home needing a rest, and using your everyday to unwind. That might be the case when we talk about a trip full of nature: hikes, yachts, mountains… And while I agree that one needs to come back un-tired from home, a city vacation should not be a perpetual hunt for activities. At least, for me. I want some of the habitual, pieces of home, with me. Like now, I’m typing this up sipping sencha that I brought with me. And I don’t want to always be on the run. For sure, I want to see some things that the new area has to offer. But I don’t want to be exhausted by the end of my trip.
Today, I was in Accademia Gallery — without trying to take pictures of art (they are pointless), and without trying to grasp everything. I skimmed through most of the exhibition, and really took in a few things: Titian’s “Pietà”, and works by Hieronymous Bosch, that were of course different from the rest of the collection.
What I want to remember for city travels in this and future trips is to focus on what’s essential for you, and not hunt everything else. Food, sights, experiences. Make it fewer and increase the intensity. After all, you’re not going to remember everything, but some things you’ll keep dear.