Slow Travel Italy
Take the Time to Fully Enjoy Your Italian Experience
Often times we take off on a vacation and try to fill our days with sightseeing and wonderful adventures, just to return home afterwards feeling exhausted and ready for another vacation! A new trend in travel is rapidly growing in popularity which aims to defeat the old way of vacationing and replace it with a more relaxed and immersive way to travel. Slow travel Italy was developed right here and is quickly becoming the preferred way among tourists to see the country and the rest of world. It started off as an Italian trend in the 1980’s known as the “Slow Food” movement and was a way of protesting the introduction of fast food restaurants, more specifically - McDonald's which opened in Rome at the time. It was invented as a way for people to slow down and take time to enjoy the dishes they were eating, while promoting locally grown food and traditional cooking - this later developed into a way of travel as well.
Slow travel Italy allows you to focus on the quality of travel rather than the quantity, and living more like a local while here and less like a foreigner. Spending time walking or biking from place to place, grocery shopping at local markets and cooking your own food are all part of the slow travel lifestyle. By embracing the local culture and striving to live like an Italian, even if just for a short while - you get the chance to truly soak up your surroundings and take in the sights at a leisurely pace.
The emphasis of slow travel Italy is to relax and enjoy every moment of your vacation here instead of rushing through it. Most tourists end up going from landmark to landmark and snap as many pictures as possible so they can go back home and say they've been there and done that. Often times people don't even know the history and the significance of the places they visit but try and cram their vacation with as many meaningless visits to various sites just to exhaust themselves by the end of the trip.
Slow Travel Italy - Helpful Tips
- Slow travel often times happens without a fixed itinerary so it's recommended to go with the flow as much as possible
- Leave your watch at home, if you really want to slow down and enjoy the moment - there is no sense of seeing the time right there on your wrist just to remind you that you need to be somewhere else. Embrace the moment and time just seems to slow down for you
- Choose to see a few carefully selected places while enjoying your slow travel Italy experience, instead of a whole bunch. Spend as much time getting to learn what you can about the places you visit, and not just grasp little bits of knowledge about a lot of different destinations because chances are - those memories won't last
- Don’t be afraid of stepping off the beaten path - some of the best adventures and most memorable experiences happen when you least expect them
- Be flexible and try something new, because nothing is more boring than being consistent - especially while on vacation
- Walk or bike as much as possible and really take the time to view the sites around you. This type of travel allows you to stop at the places you pass and fully immerse in all the colourful beauty, much more than zooming past them and just having a quick glance out of the car window
- Live like an Italian - join in on the festivities, eat where the locals eat and partake in activities that are designed more for the residents than for the tourists
- Spend time relaxing - find a quiet park bench or just sit on your balcony, take some time to kick your feet up while taking a break and enjoying the warm weather and a delicious drink or a snack
- See the sites you really want to see, try to avoid visiting tourist attractions just because that's what all the other people consider a must-see. You'll get to appreciate the sites a lot more when they have some kind of unique appeal and a deeper meaning to you personally
If you are looking to get away from the fast pace and acquire the most from your Italian vacation, then slow travel Italy is the way to go. It will allow you the laid back, relaxed, travel experience you are looking for. After all, why not take a moment to just stop and smell the Italian roses?
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