Tag Archives: Slow Travel

The diary of a Slow Traveller – Walking the streets, Siracusa, Sicily

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The very nature of  Slow Travel is that you can establish a daily routine because there is no  need to race to the next new thing.

Over our weeks in Sircausa our daily routine became a leisurely walk through the streets of the Island of Ortigia and its  nearby mainland. Siracusa is a place that has  seen so much over more than 20 centuries. it was something that we came to appreciate as we walked the streets each and every day.

These shoes are made fro walking!

These shoes are made for walking!

While our daily routine almost always started in search of a coffee and a pastry  we were always captivated by  Ortigia’s narrow streets that were laid out centuries ago.

Who else has walked these streets?

Who else has walked through this archway?

These are streets that Plato quite possibly walked. It was amazing to imagine Archimedes having walked the same streets pondering some problem as we sought to solve the difficult problem of where to go for our morning coffee!

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Did Archimedes walk down here?

Reading the guides or Jeremy Dummett’s book about Siracusa makes it impossible not to wonder whose footsteps we were retracing as we walked to coffee or just meandered through these narrow streets. In one of these streets Archimedes was murdered. Continue reading →

Diary of a Slow Traveller – A state of mind

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Slow Travel is a state of mind.

As I am writing my Diary of a Slow Traveller as a reflective diary,  I have good reason to scan the thousands of photos I took while traveling through Italy. They are definitely snapshots that capture a moment rather than a work of art.

My favourites are the ones that look out over an expanse of water. Sometimes its just looking out to see or across a lake, other times it’s at a lone sailing boat or a lone fishing boat.

Lake Como

Lake Como

Lone Sailor - Ortigia

Lone Sailor – Ortigia

Lone fisherman - Ortigia

Lone fisherman – Ortigia

These photos  were taken at Lake Como and Ortigia, Siracusa.  All were taken at a time when I could immerse myself for perhaps a few seconds or minutes in the scene.

They provided me a “sense of place”. Continue reading →

The Diary of a Slow Traveller

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Slow travel is quite simply not being in a hurry. Slow Travel happens when you don’t have a deadline or timeline hanging over you.

It’s about taking your time to get somewhere and when you do, taking the time to appreciate it. It is as a fellow blogger put it “being where you are, not about what you do”. It’s about soaking in the experience because Slow Travel is a state of mind.

Why would someone become a Slow Traveller? In part the perfect response is because they can. The time for Slow Travel is when you don’t have to be somewhere anytime soon. What “soon” means is upto you! Continue reading →

Diary of a Slow Traveller – 13 December, Santa Lucia Celebration

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We arrived in Siracusa just a few days before the major religious celebration of the city – the Santa Lucia procession. I’d read so much about Santa Lucia a Christian martyr who was killed in the Fourth Century and was genuinely excited that we would be in Siracusa to witness it. As I tweeted, sitting watching the people outside the Cathederal, I did feel the excitement building.

Street vendors

Street vendors

All morning the street vendors had been setting up to sell their wares – sweets, balloons, souvenirs of the festival, toys and mobile phone covers. There were also craft markets and special food stores where we bought some locally produced mandarin marmalade and thyme flavored honey.

Late morning outside the Cathederal

Late morning outside the Cathederal

Our wonderful Airbnb hosts invited us as their guests to join them for lunch Continue reading →