How Was Your Trip? (Part 1)

IYKYK, right? I get it all the time. The single most impossible question to answer seriously, without offense. I get it. It’s challenging if you’re not invested, interested, or in contact much. Where to begin? Maybe you really don’t want to know that much and you’re being polite. Frankly, I don’t want to bore people who justifiably aren’t invested or interested. If I really got into it, I don’t think most people would even find it interesting. Summing up the breadth of experiences I’ve had in the past six months of living a semi-nomadic life would be insulting to my inquisitor and to myself. So, naturally the best and only answer to the question “how was your trip” is “good, thanks”.

Yet, still, I’m about to dump a novel on the few souls who are brave enough to dive in with me. For you, I have some thoughts to share. Don’t feel bad if you jump ship now, I won’t judge. We never need to speak about it. But if you do stick around, here’s what I think I can share. First, and most importantly, the outcome of the experiment I conducted over the past six months. If you’ve been following, I planned this time to see if living nomadically was possible, desirable, enjoyable, affordable, rewarding, or otherwise. Moreover, the devil was in the details and the places I chose were intentional as a barometer to gauge. Did they live up? How would I do things differently and where would I go in the future? And lastly, is it worth repeating and will I indeed go in the future? Plus bonus content: why I stopped posting videos on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube will be addressed.

So, strap in because you’re about to hear how was my trip…

For context, I recently shipped my son off to college and I own a seasonal business that doesn’t fully require my presence. So, I planned to leverage this freedom to return to my greatest passion. I wanted to go to my favorite places and see what it felt like to live like a local for at least a month in each place. I considered the season & weather and signed up for home exchange to leverage my apartment to reduce my overhead (budget was a huge consideration for me, as I cannot justify spending much more while traveling than my time at home). I also was very conscious of being alone too much. I wanted to go places where I had some community, or opportunity to build community, or where friends could come visit me so that I didn’t have multiple weeks where I was purely solo. Been there, done that and while I appreciate my ‘me’ time, I need balance.

I landed on the following itinerary: September in Rome + a few weeks in October to bounce around Europe. The objective here was to return to the scene of my study abroad (and favorite city on Earth) to see how it felt to just be there for a long stint. Late October to Late Novemer in Mexico. I’ve fallen in love with San Pancho over the years, spending a week or two here or there. How would a month feel? Thanksgiving at home. December + January in Thailand. I used to spend two to three months a year in Thailand operating adventure tours for a span of over a decade. It’s been many years since I hunkered down there. How would it feel? Could I spend more time? February and March in a ski area. I lived in Colorado for six years but never actually in a resort town where I could ski daily. I wanted to get in a least 20 days on the mountain.

I decided I wanted to tackle content creation throughout my travels. Specifically I was hoping to create some long-form videos showcasing the amazing food experiences of each place. I felt like there was a huge gap in the food media world post-Bourdain and I wanted to try my hand at writing, shooting, and editing some videos about things like Cacio e Pepe and Roman pizza styles. I bought a sweet portable video rig and began shooting a bunch of shorter reels to build some confidence and develop a voice in preparation for something more substantial. You can see them on my instagram (links at the top of this page for all socials). People seemed to like them and they were gaining some views before I stopped.

A side note: I get asked a lot what I did with my business while I was gone. As I mentioned, it’s pretty seasonal, but we do remain open and have some clients in the cooler months. I entrusted the shop to my lead instructor and offered him a percentage of business while I was gone. My shop staff ran the show on the weekends and my top counselor was running the after-school program as she did for the past couple of years. While business certainly wasn’t as prolific as when I’m around, I felt good enough about taking this time to test the waters and recharge my batteries. I was always available to answer questions for almost all of the time I was gone. Everything went smoothly at work.

So, Rome. The Eternal City. Wow. I freaking love so much about Rome… the antiquity just hits me so hard, I’m perpetually punch drunk on Marcus Aurelius and Augustus, the forum and circus maximus. I soak in everything ancient with an infinite well of intrigue. Tell me more, show me more. There’s the food. C’mon. Even tho I limited my pizza nd pasta intake, you can’t sleep on Italian cuisine. I couldn’t wait to dig into production of my content. I wrote scripts and contacted my former school to hire some interns to help me with the whole process. And the people… It’s a hearty lot of proud and stubborn sweethearts, both locals and expats who weave this modern tapestry of Roman culture. I also have a yoga studio that I adore and planned to go on the daily – big plus. And on top of it all, I was offered to stay in an apartment overlooking the Pantheon at a ridiculously low cost.

It was all too good to be true.

And if I’m honest, it was. The best laid plans… I started off strong and you can tell by my initial video posts that I hit the ground running. But if you listen very carefully, you’ll hear that I pretty much arrived with a frog in my throat. I tried to will myself to not be sick. I kept on pushing. I had a stream of friends visiting back to back and we did all the sites, ate all the foods. I’d go home exhausted, my head swimming, but I refused to succumb. Until I just had no choice. I was down for the count. Ok, cool, I’ll take a few days to rest and recover. Which became a week, which became two. I became quite familiar with Glovo, the food delivery service that brought me my meatballs in white wine sauce and sautéed ciccoria. I would peel myself from the bed to drag myself to the market for water, tea, broth, and all the medicines. I took covid tests, all negative. But I wasn’t getting better. I slept a lot. Seemingly for days on end.

Well into my third week I started to feel some energy. I finally got back to my yoga classes. I made some more videos. I spent time with my Roman friends. This was definitely more of what I planned but something was still off. First, I was really disappointed that I had to abandon the thought of the long-form food videos. I missed the boat, didn’t do enough while I was sick and didn’t have enough time left. But the thing that struck me the most was that with the time that I did have left, I just didn’t feel fulfilled. I was living in Rome, a cosmopolitan city of hard working people and I felt out of place. I wasn’t a tourist – I’ve seen all the sites dozens of times. I tried to be part of the cafe culture, but true Romans go back to work after their long, wine-soaked, lunches. I would linger and read, write, do my crosswords, shop, walk, take yoga classes.

And heron lies the rub. What I discovered about myself, in my first foray into this nomad life, was that I’m not very good at being unproductive in a place where everyone else was being productive. I’d meet my friends nightly for aperitvo and dinner and they’d get up for work the next day. I was without a project, felt like I wasted weeks being sick, was even a little tired of cacio e Pepe, carbonara and amatriciana. Gasp. I said the quiet part out loud. So, when it came time to pack up and move on to the next phase, I was ready. I still love Rome. I will continue to visit for the rest of my life. But I can’t see myself there, or any other bustling metro, for months on end like I thought, unless I had a job or a serious project. My greatest takeaway in this first leg is that even if I did, I need to be prepared to let go of my expectations and be with the experience, whatever it is. I wanted too much control over Rome. Rome had different plans for me.

Living near the Pantheon provided incomparable views but there was no heart and soul when I walked out the door. So many tourists, even in September that I was bombarded morning, noon, and night. In my previous stays, I opted to be near the Campo Dei Fiori, specifically as close to Via Guilia as possible. There I have my favorite cafe, a bunch of amazing restaurants and bars, kids gathering for school every morning, and shops where the owners stand in the doorway during the evening passiagiata and say hello once they recognize your face. This is a very different side of Rome that I’d want to recreate in the future. While I would miss the views, it’s no contest for me.

And about the food thing I said above. Don’t get me wrong, Roman food hits all of the superlatives. What they have is the best in world. It’s just that Romans eat the same things over and over and over and over. There are definitely variations available, but a massive percentage of restaurants have the same antipasti, the same primi, the same secondi. On shorter visits, I basked in the indulgence of these treats. This time, I found that after a few weeks, I wanted more variety. And the Roman’s aren’t big on variety. There’s a reason you don’t see good Thai, Japanese, Korean, Spanish or French food in Italy. Hell, you barely see much Tuscan or Emilia Romagna food in Rome. They love their local cuisines and don’t require more. Please don’t ban me from the city. Pretty please. I promise I’ll eat it all when I come back.

I really want to end on a positive note, so a couple of things that really stuck with me about Rome. First: the aperitvo culture. I discovered new bars in sexy little piazzas with great cocktails and small bites. There were many times where we’d get lost in conversation and end up turning aperitvo into dinner. If you’re not planning your days around grabbing drinks with friends between 6:30-8:30pm in Rome, you’re missing out. I’ve updated my map of the city to include all of my favorites. In many ways, with lunch as the primary meal, aperitivo is more important than dinner.

Lastly, one of the most lovely nights I had on this visit included a walk home, post-apertivo, along the via Monte Tarpeo. Somehow, in all my years visiting, I’ve missed this road, which essentially winds its way through and above the Roman Forum. Here, I discovered that visiting the forum during the day is for suckers. The real juice is at night, where there are no tourists and the whole thing is lit up. It’s movie-level perfect on this street at night. This may have been the only time that I wish I had a romantic partner there with me. I was that moved.

Part 2: Up next, Mexico with the jew-fro-bro.