The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.
― St. Augustine
Saint Augustine was born in 354 in the Roman province of Numidia on the North African coast. Well before supersonic jets, automobiles and even hot air balloons, the most efficient ways to travel long distances back then were via camels, cart drawn by horses or donkeys or, I suppose, one’s own two sandaled feet.
With those rudimentary ways of making a mile, I really wonder how much Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis — as he was more properly, if less fluidly, known — actually did travel. But no matter, the above quote attributed to him was incredibly prescient, if nothing else.
A group of 50 of us on a recent tour of Italy was reminded of that by our tour guide Mercedes, who told us that St. Augustine’s saying was one of her favorites. Of course, Mercedes — by her very occupation — has a vested interest in people traveling. If they don’t, she’s out of work.
The point, though, is what more modern day travel gurus such as Rick Steves and the late Anthony Bourdain want us to know: Seeing other lands, experiencing other cultures, listening to other languages and opinions are the things that open our own minds and eyes, and broaden our own horizons.
It is a big world out there, and even though some may say that 2024 is not the best time to get out into it — with conflicts raging in the Middle East and in Ukraine and in Sudan and in Haiti, to name just a few — I would argue it actually may be among the most important times to learn other viewpoints.
Had we not been traveling, I wouldn’t have had a conversation with a young waitress in Treviso who, knowing that we were from the United States, challenged how much we really cared about........