This blog is the second in a series that we cared deeply about: we called it “travel deeper” because our desire is to help you travel with greater awareness, exploring places with curiosity, respect, joy, and a touch of courage to face small challenges that will make your experience even more fun and meaningful.
Paying attention to the journey as a great opportunity for change — which might simply mean gaining a new perspective, discovering something new about yourself, integrating a new habit, or learning to see the world through a new lens — doesn’t mean not having fun, not relaxing, or not resting: it means enriching yourself, giving yourself new opportunities, creating even more meaningful memories.
Because traveling, stretching our branches, transplanting ourselves into new lands, is one of the best ways to grow.
This second blog is dedicated to people: not only the travel companions who join us from home — and with whom we are given the precious opportunity to build new bonds, strengthen complicity, experience new synergies — but also the people we meet along the way: fellow travelers and locals, who host or transport us for part of the journey, who serve us a traditional dish or simply smile at us on the street — other examples of humanity beyond our own that we encounter along the way and who often leave an indelible mark on us, because travel is also this.
Here are five ways to better reflect on our relationship with people, and what they can teach us or leave with us in the journeys we take.
Relatives, friends, our partner, our family, a group of strangers — whoever we bring along on the trip will inevitably shape what awaits us along the rest of the way, how we will live it and how we will face the small and big challenges of each day, but also what deserves to be celebrated.
If we set off with someone we already love, a journey is definitely the ideal moment to forge new bonds, rediscover or consolidate harmony, talk a lot and about everything, strengthen a relationship and say the things that perhaps haven’t been spoken in busy weeks;
it’s also a way to enjoy someone else’s company, to celebrate and laugh together, to enjoy quality time with your children, friends, loved ones.
If the journey is with strangers we didn’t know before the trip, then it becomes something else — a beautiful way to create new bonds, to be together and break down some barriers, and maybe step outside your comfort zone.
Those we meet along the way naturally leave a mark on our experience — sometimes light and barely noticeable, other times deep and indelible.
We like to think of them as small, great teachers who can entertain us, teach us something, accompany us, help us, support us, or simply show us what the world looks like from another perspective and in another place.
The people who guide us, who host us, the ones who serve us food in the trattoria where we stop, tired and hungry, the ones who smile at us on the street or help us understand how public transport works, those who simply pass by living their lives and show us how others live — in other corners of our country or the world — give us a unique opportunity to grow and reflect.
We always suggest trying to build connections — whether deep or fleeting: a smile is enough, or trying to say thank you in another language, or asking a question to start a conversation — to let our world and someone else’s connect.
And you never know what wonderful things might be born from that encounter.
We don’t often think about it, but the people waiting for us at home are also incredibly important in a journey: first of all, before the trip, because they encourage us, support us, challenge us, question us, help us pack, set expectations, tell stories, search for information, or somehow want to be part of the planning;
then during the trip, when they see what we post from afar, listen to and support us, send us photos from home, and help us cultivate a healthy nostalgia.
And finally afterward, when we return home: it’s beautiful to tell them stories, share, show them pictures, dream of a new departure together, understand together what has changed, what’s still ahead, and much more.
A new connection might even be born with them, even if they didn’t travel with us — because, even if just a little, we’ve definitely come back changed.
Every journey is a line connecting two versions of ourselves: who we were before we left, and who will return home.
At the beginning of the path, we carry with us habits, thoughts, expectations. Then, mile after mile, things resize, clarify, transform.
The slow days, new landscapes, unknown faces put us in touch with parts of ourselves we had forgotten or set aside.
And so, even if we return home with the same shoes on our feet, we are no longer the same.
Maybe we are a little lighter. Or more patient.
Maybe we’ve learned to slow down, to listen better, to appreciate silence or a simple conversation with a stranger.
What remains is a small, great transformation: a new awareness that stays with us, even when the journey is over.
When we choose a destination, perhaps we are also choosing who we want to become.
Those who dream of a quiet path through the woods might be seeking reflection and stillness; those who wish to immerse themselves in lively villages full of tradition might be looking for connection, discovery, exchange.
Every journey is also a dialogue with our desire for change — whether clear or hidden — and with the hope of meeting someone or something that helps us see ourselves in a new light.
And so, along the way, we find ourselves looking for faces, words, gestures that resemble or complete us.
We hope to find someone who tells us a story we needed to hear, or who opens up a perspective we had never considered.
Sometimes we are the ones to be that someone for others.
And in this exchange, in this dance between longing and discovery, the journey finds its full meaning.
Nominee Best Specialist Tour Operator 2023
Touroperating
S-Cape Countryside Travels srl
Borgo Allegri 16R
50122 Firenze FI
P. IVA 05227330486
