UPDATE: 06 February 2007
DESTINATIONS...
there is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown... avoiding physical contact with anything strange | elias canetti | 1905-1994 | nobel laureate
BIRTH
OF AN EARTHROAMER
Not everybody gets a rush out of
conquering unfamiliar territory like I do. The bug bit me years ago as I
stood on a balcony in northern Italy. I was 15 and was spending a year in
Europe with my parents. Being a teenager, I'd been
reluctant to move overseas and away from my friends –
even knowing it was
only for a year. It was simultaneously the best and worst thing to ever
happen to me. I liked it and hated it. I was homesick, but having fun. And
then in April, we moved to Italy. We piled all we had with us into our Volkswagen Jetta and headed southwards
out of Germany and across the western corner of Austria. I remember waking up just as we were
crossing the border into the green, lush, rolling hills of northern Italy.
Our villa was nestled into a little valley on the edge of a small town
called Vicenza. Each morning, the sun would rise and beam brightly through the
tall glass doors in my bedroom. I began most days by walking through those
doors onto my balcony where I could look to my right to see a sprawling
field of poppies, or to my left to see the Alps. That was it for me –
I
was hooked –
and life has never been the same again.
Photo: Our villa on via Camisana, Torri di Quartesolo, Vicenza, Italy - 1986.
WHERE DO
YOU WANT TO GO?
Earthroaming is
a state of mind –
not a tally of passport stamps. Here's your chance to take a
virtual vacation...
