This blog is the first in a series we care deeply about. We’ve called it “Travel Deeper” because we want to help you explore the world with more awareness — moving through each place with curiosity, respect, joy, and just a touch of courage to embrace the little challenges that make any journey more rewarding and meaningful.
Paying attention to travel as a chance for change — whether that means gaining a new perspective, learning something about yourself, building a new habit, or simply seeing the world through a slightly different lens — doesn’t mean giving up fun or relaxation. It means enriching the experience. Creating stronger memories. Giving yourself the chance to grow in ways you didn’t expect.
Because to travel — to stretch your roots, to transplant yourself into new terrain — is one of the most powerful ways we grow.
In this first article, we’ve gathered five ways to connect more deeply with the places you visit: small but powerful suggestions to help you prepare, observe, and tune in to the land, people, and stories that surround you.
Traveling on foot is one of the slowest and most powerful ways to explore. You don’t blur past towns like snapshots from a car window — you pass through them step by step, immersed in the landscape, noticing the way it shifts around you. You see how colors change, how dialects shift, how food evolves with each region.
And while walking is a deeply meditative experience that often turns inward, these tips are meant to help you look outward too — to stay open to the beauty, life, and meaning of the world you’re moving through.
Some people love reading every guidebook. Others prefer to arrive with zero expectations and just be surprised. Either way, preparing for a trip doesn’t have to mean studying maps or museums. Try reading a novel set in the region. Listen to music from local artists. Try a traditional recipe. Learn a few words of the language or find out what the local dialect sounds like. Read up on old legends or folk stories. These are all small ways to start building a connection with the place — even before you arrive.
Not everyone likes to write — but if you’re up for a small challenge, journaling doesn’t mean writing a novel. It can be quick, free, and deeply personal. Start by asking yourself: “What am I hoping for from this place?” or “What do I want to leave behind?” and “What excites me most about going?”
As you travel, keep recording your thoughts — emotions, moments, even just lists of what you saw. After the trip, go back and read what you wrote before you left. What changed? What surprised you?
And if writing isn’t your thing? Try sketching. Paste in train tickets or leaves you picked up. Or simply choose your photos carefully and give them a story. Documenting your journey helps you truly see it.
Bring home something tangible — something small, personal, and meaningful. A stone. A leaf. A local book or postcard. A T-shirt you found in a tiny shop. Treat it as more than a souvenir. Give it meaning. Every time you see it, it will bring you back to who you were on that walk — and everything that changed along the way.
Connecting with a place also means caring for it. That can be simple: pick up litter along the trail. Support a small shop instead of a chain. Stay in a family-run B&B. Use a refillable bottle instead of buying plastic water. Small gestures, yes — but they build a more respectful and authentic relationship with the place that’s hosting you.
We all travel with our own pace. Alarms, checklists, goals. But each place has its own rhythm. In some towns, lunch is late. In others, the world wakes up only after sunset. Let yourself be influenced by where you are. Slow down when everything around you is still. Move quicker when the world is buzzing. It’s a subtle but powerful way to tune in.
Traveling more mindfully doesn’t mean taking time away from your trip — it means getting more out of it. It means turning every step into a chance to listen, observe, learn. When we connect with a place — its stories, its people, the details we might otherwise miss — we end up with a journey that feels richer, deeper, more ours.
Whether it’s writing in a notebook, collecting a talisman, slowing your pace, or starting a conversation with a stranger, these small actions shape how you’ll remember your walk.
Because real travel means letting go — and being open to surprise.
That’s where this new series begins: with the desire to walk not just through a trail, but into a deeper experience.
With curious eyes, an open heart, and a light backpack.
Happy walking, wherever it takes you.
Nominee Best Specialist Tour Operator 2023
Touroperating
S-Cape Countryside Travels srl
Borgo Allegri 16R
50122 Firenze FI
P. IVA 05227330486
