Deep inside, we’re nomads; we’re travelers at heart. The urge of humankind to discover new places has always been part of our core.
That’s why, the moment I felt nothing tying me down to where I lived, my first reaction was travel.
I was young and naive but enthusiastic about learning a new lifestyle. There were many opportunities, and the world seemed so inviting. I was lucky to find one in the middle of Europe. I arrived in Switzerland, ‘adopted’ by a Swiss family for a few months. That was my first experience living abroad with strangers that soon became family. It was learning to live and love in another language.
You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”
―Miriam Adeney
My heart stayed continuously divided after such an experience. But little did I know that that would not be the only time. During college, I concentrated all my efforts on the next getaway, saving all through the year to travel as soon as the holiday break arrived. The travel bug had kicked in… and it did in such a way that I couldn’t keep my mind from it. The urge to go on traveling had already made a home in me.
A couple of years later, I went to Japan as an exchange student. It changed me significantly, and another part of me remains between the yellow ginkgo leaves and soft pink cherry blossoms. It was a year full of new flavors, textures, and accents, learning and unlearning life as I knew it.
Not long after, another opportunity to move abroad arrived. Italy was the next stop and where my heart found a new place to call home.
Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world, you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life—and travel—leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks—on your body or on your heart—are beautiful.”
―Anthony Bourdain
I must say that I’ve been in enough places to know that you can find a friendly hand no matter the region, language, or culture. There will always be a new corner to discover, a new route to take, and the possibility to see the world with fresh eyes.
This leads me to keep searching for ways to travel through stories, anecdotes, food, and new experiences. Creating a magazine is the first creative outcome of this wanderlust. But in the end, I hope that beyond the words I write and the photos I share, it shows how meaningful travel can be. Hopefully, the enthusiasm for discovering a different culture, its food, people, landscapes, richness, and beauty become contagious.
Probably, I will never be cured of the traveling bug (nor do I want to, in fact). And I’ve learned that even if, at first, it seems like the heart’s divided by moving around, I feel mine’s even more plenty as I’ve discovered home to be, wherever I am.
