Since Covid, I have long wanted to get back to travel. In the abstract I embrace it and its uncertainty; in reality, travel and planning intimidates me.
In 2020, when we were both (nearly) retired, we were anticipating a trip to Ireland, our first overseas adventure since 2015. I have the travel books to prove that intent, but once the pandemic came, and grocery washing became our life, we had to pivot away from getting on a plane and traveling across the ocean, masked or unmasked. Our plans were upended and we hunkered down.
In between then and now more travel plans were made and then cancelled several times, but this Winter, finally, we made the commitment to visit a part of the world we had not seen before. With ten years in between overseas travel, our biggest hurdle was making a decision about where to visit, and in that regard, Adrien was most supportive in encouraging me to look into Sicily, the birthplace of my paternal grandfather. For that encouragement, I will be forever grateful.
In the past we have used guidebooks and train websites to plot out our visit. We prefer to use Europe’s wonderful train system, we enjoy stays in more local hotels that have not been “Americanized”, making an attempt to experience European travel with respect for local customs. However, the thought of trying to plan a trip to Sicily on our own was mentally exhausting. Obviously aging and rusty travel skills contributed to that, and so we made the call: we would engage in a tour. While there are many of these with some grand experiences, our experiences planning using his Europe through the Back Door guides as a model for authenticity, led us to the Rick Steves’ Best of Sicily.
Over the next weeks, I will posts here about this trip. As Rick would say “travel is a political act”. That was certainly true for us – being awakened to new cultures and experiences was an antidote to the isolationism increasingly found here in the US, but this trip was also a journey of self-discovery for me.
I have been researching my family’s ancestry for nearly 20 years; the opportunity to be where my ancestors were, to experience some of the culture of Sicily, and to realize walking I was walking in the shadow of some of the places those ancestors walked was and is a powerful reminder of who I am.
Although my paternal grandfather had no desire to return to his birthplace, learning about Sicily and its history, the influence of Sicily’s conquerors, and the amalgam that is its culture, was important. This adventure served to make me even more curious about this branch of my family tree and history.
Benvenuti all’avventura della vita.
After An Educator's Journey 