In the past 24 years, probably no other writer has drawn more travelers to Italy than Frances Mayes. Your 1996 memoir Under the Tuscan sun Tells the story of how she fell in love with a rundown 200 year old villa outside Cortona and how she carefully restored it with her Italian neighbors. The book stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for two and a half years, became a feature film with Diane Lane, and prompted Mayes to write a series of subsequent love letters to Italy that inspired many of her readers to dream about moving to Bel Paese.
50 reasons to love the world in 2021
50 reasons to love the world in 2021
“Because I had the unexpected joy of spending two days in Rome in December. Instead of clogging the sidewalks and supplying cars and buses with tourists, the city shone, quiet and absolutely clean. I had many streets and squares to myself. I could smell the sea air. I just went everywhere and took in the essential city. Imagine standing alone by the Trevi Fountain, listening to the water splash. Among the many travel highs in my life, I’ve never felt so amazed and happy. “- Frances Mayes, author
More Reasons to love the world
For Mayes’ latest project Always Italy As a co-author, she and I spent nearly two years zigzagging in every region of Italy, only to find that many years after we moved there was still so much to discover about our adopted home. The book came out last spring when the country was in Curfew as the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. While the timing seemed unfortunate at first, the book is an opportunity to show solidarity with Mayes’ beloved Italy and its 20 diverse and uniquely beautiful regions.
I recently met with Mayes to delve deeper into her love for Italy and ask her advice on how to unlock meaningful travel experiences that connect with people from other cultures.
Q: You wrote that you are deeply in love with Italy. What inspired this love and what drives it today?
From the first to the last trip, I had exactly the same sensations – the feeling of being at home. Who can explain how you can feel a metabolic connection with a strange place when you have no genes, no ties? Colpo di Fulmine – “love at first sight”. I originally traveled to Italy to see art and architecture. I have been living there for about 1,000 reasons for six months now, but the deepest: I open the door and say out loud: “I’m at home”.
Q: You recently toured all of Italy for the first time. What surprised you most about this experience?
I have traveled a lot over several decades but have returned to the favorites (Piedmont, Veneto and Le Marche) many times while neglecting whole regions like Calabria, Molise, Aosta Valley. Write See you in the piazza: New places to discover in Italy In 2018, I made a desire to see every region. I have been traveling to rediscover the spontaneity of traveling by visiting unknown cities. I thought one day in the exquisite [town of] Troy in Apulia: “Why not continue? See everything. “
What will always surprise me is the amazing diversity of Italy
What will always surprise me is the amazing diversity of Italy. Every region [is] so unique. You can’t get to the bottom of Italy, although after four years of intensive travel I can say that I’m starting to know a little about it.
Q: You have written extensively about some of the most beautiful places in Italy. Why is it important to preserve and protect these places for future generations?
Venice for example? The most impressive and romantic place in the world? I would like to believe that our great-grandchildren will take a midnight gondola ride, bands of light on the water, only the sound of the oar knocking, and light peeking into the windows of the large palazzi with ceiling frescoes and huge chandeliers. You will read how this enchanted city rose from swampy sandbanks and the early residents laid black and white mosaics that still astonish the viewer. This can offer a million other life changing moments of travel. Our landmarks and natural resources are the gifts we give.
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Q: Like many popular travel destinations, your adopted home Tuscany is struggling with the effects of over-tourism. How did you see the influx of travelers changing Tuscany in recent years and how can governments and travelers help mitigate this trend?
Tuscany is only allowed to grapple in the high season. For the rest of the year, from November to April, the cities return to “how it used to be”. In my adopted country of Cortona, shopkeepers, restaurants, hotels and other companies complain about the slow winter weeks and say they are boring. After the winter break, most people pull these metal doors down to shut them down. This is a good time to do repairs and repaint. Everyone looks forward to spring when visitors return like the rondine (swallows). June and July are primarily tourist months, while May, September and October are lively but generally not crowded – except sometimes in cities.
Some people can only travel during prime time, but travelers can choose between early spring and late fall. Head to Rome, Florence, and Venice if you haven’t, but save part of the trip for the less traveled road. I arrived in beautiful Turin and said, “Where is everyone?”
[When researching the book, you] and I reveled in the cities that are often skipped: Genoa, Catania, Palermo, Trieste, Cagliari, Siracusa, Treviso, Trento. In these you will feel the experience become more intimate and exciting. When you come across Orsara, a village in Puglia, where you sit down for lunch in a forno (bakery) that has been making bread since the 16th century. or you wander across a wide meadow in Cogne, Valle d’Aosta, while the sunset catches snow-capped mountains; or you are lying on a poppy field outside Montepulciano, you are there, exactly where you want to be. These off-track locations bring you closer to the crucial question of why you should travel.
I reveled in the cities that are often skipped: Genoa, Catania, Palermo, Trieste, Cagliari, Siracusa, Treviso, Trento
Regarding government regulations, certain locations must set limits. One thing the pandemic has shown is that the earth is rapidly recovering from its human overloads. Maybe we can use this knowledge in the future. Limitation of bus entrances, closure of the centers to traffic, limitation of flights, limitation of the docking area. Mass tourism is ugly and requires some courageous maneuvers to control it in some of the most desirable places in the world.
Q: What are some of your top tips for unlocking meaningful travel experiences that connect with people from other cultures, foster better understanding, and build empathy?
Planning a trip is half the fun. I like to read the authors of the place I want to visit. In Sicily, for example, you start from a good perspective after reading the leopard of Lampedusa and the novels and stories of Leonardo Sciascia. In Always Italy, we wanted to create a cultural context in each region through books, films, architecture, history, archeology and art. Such good preparation widens the opening and prepares you to meet the people who have been shaped by the place. Once there, Italy is the best country to get in touch with the residents. People have an inherent humanism like no other place I’ve been to.
Go to a bar in Naples for three days in a row and the barista will know what you want without asking. Even if you are reserved, it is natural to chat with the person who also buys wine or artichokes. Ask the waiter where she is from. Ask to meet the cook. Visit the mozzarella maker, the focaccia baker. Take a few language lessons even if you are only in town for a few days. Take a cooking class with a local. Get a haircut. Ask for directions, even in the age of GPS. Attend church services or concerts. Sit in the piazza on market day. If you’re with a group, drop out or get up early and watch the city wake up. Above all, make eye contact. You may not have this habit where you come from, but it is a given in Italy.
Q: You are known to have taken a risk buying an abandoned villa in Tuscany. When is it important to stick to a plan while traveling, and when is it important to open up to unexpected experiences?
I rented houses all over Tuscany for five summers before buying my house. In the movie Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances bought on a whim, but real Frances didn’t. But yes, still a risk as I was a recently divorced university professor with limited funds, and back then (1990) buying overseas property seemed like registering for lunar travel.
I think I could take this risk in order to take other risks later, e.g. For example, quitting my job because of two successful books when I had no idea whether the writing would work. While I enjoy planning trips and making reservations, I am all for getting off course when a waterfall, hidden Romanesque church, clear bay, winemaker or festival comes my way.
Q: Which places and experiences did you love most on your trips to Italy?
See the two bronze warriors in the museum in Reggio di Calabria; Eat around on New Years Eve The rise in Cormons, Friuli; I’m taking my little grandson on a fountain quest in Rome. standing under the pantheon oculus when snow was falling; lying in a field of wildflowers on a starry night near Trento; Hiking to green lakes in the Dolomites; walk along the Arno at dawn with a warm brioche; navigate the watery island world of the Venetian lagoon; Participation in the evening stroll along the waterfront in Carloforte, Sardinia; harvest our olives every October; setting the table under the trees for a long dinner; find a treasure at the Arezzo antique market; see the amazing Greek ruins in Sicily and Paestum; I’m almost alone in the Uffizi on a January afternoon. Discovery of the purgatory chapels in Apulia; come across the jewel box of the baroque town of Scicli in southern Sicily.
Endless, yes, Italy is endless.
BBC Travel celebrates 50 reasons to love the world in 2021 by inspiring popular voices as well as unsung heroes in local communities around the world.
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