Let’s start with the obvious fact that it’s arrogant to think you know a place just because you spent a few days there. I’ve been to Florence three times; I barely know anything about it. I could go back every summer for the rest of my life and still find interesting things to see and do. And not because it’s Florence. You could say the same about, oh, Lugano. The fact is, unmoored from the urgency to see and do, you find your own likes and dislikes. Fodors likes this place? I don’t. TripAdvisor tells me this place is middling? Nerts to crowdsourcing, my tastes are refined. Take your time, don’t rush, do what you want. Including lounging in the sun for a few hours.
You also get to see your place evolve. That restaurant closed? Such a shame, I liked their pizza. But look, that place is new, let’s try it out. The old stuff stays the same, that’s how the tourist industry works, but everything around it is constantly changing. It makes every trip its own thing.
Lastly, and probably most important: when you go back to the same place, invariably you get to know some of the locals. It probably starts with hotel staff and shop-keepers – if I went back to Mitteltal, Germany, I’d wager the convenience store owner would recognize me as the German-speaking American who purchases unhealthy quantities of wine. And we’d chat about this and that. Eventually, we’d connect with some locals while standing in line at the bakery, or perhaps our kids would make a friend in the playground. Locals notice and take interest when the same folks show up repeatedly. Everyone thinks their hometown is special, and they'd be delighted with outside confirmation.
Point is: I may be driven by St. Augustine’s dictum on ‘the world is a book, don’t just read one page,’ but it’s not the only choice when it comes to travel. If you find a happy place, make it yours for 2018 and beyond.
