Traveling is not the same for everyone. We are never the same person twice in one day, so how could we have the same tastes as others? I like Rome, my wife likes London, friends from Los Angeles with whom we like traveling prefer Paris. They like to book tickets to museums, like to reserve tables at restaurants, while I’ve always avoided programmed itineraries of any sort. What we share, though, is wanting something that only travel can offer and that occurs once we’re elsewhere and have an alternate hold on things, a different pair of lenses. What it is exactly is something we seldom disclose to others, because we’re not quite sure we can fathom it ourselves. Maybe this is why we travel, though we give it many names.
For me it came into focus one day in Orvieto, north of Rome. My wife is sleeping in late. She …