Ariana Eskew
Italy Imagined:
Hello, my name is Ariana Eskew and I am a 17 year old sophomore majoring in UX design at Purdue University.
My parents instilled a love to travel in me at a young age. For as long as I can remember, we have gone on family vacations that are well planned out by my mother. An especially notable one was our long-anticipated trip to Scotland and England prior to my first year of high school. I say long-anticipated because my parents had been talking about and planning a trip there since I was around eight years old. However, the timing was just “never right,” so that trip did not occur until I was fourteen. While I am thankful for that because it meant I would be able to remember more of the trip in the future, it was also difficult because I spent years thinking about what it would be like to finally be there.
This is also how I feel ahead of my trip to Italy. My best friend from high school is practically in love with the country, without having ever been. His interest and enthusiasm about Italy has made me curious to see what it is like for myself. That, and the fact that I have always found the Renaissance to be the most interesting period in history, inspired me to take my study abroad course to Italy.
Although I am excited to know in less than two months I will be getting off a plane in Venice, after reading de Botton’s excerpt “On Anticipation” from The Art of Travel, I am hesitant to entertain any preconceived notation of how Italy may be. De Botton gives an example of a man that provided “…an extravagantly pessimistic analysis of the difference between what we imagine about a place and what can occur when we reach it,” (9). After reading this, I grew concerned that I will be setting myself up for disappointment and miss out on capturing the whole experience with fresh eyes if I try to imagine Italy now.
Nevertheless, if I close my eyes, I imagine Italy as a beautiful place that has busy piazzas filled with locals and tourists alike. The locals I expect to be loud with thick accents and a different style of clothing, though in what way I am not sure. Some might be accepting of tourists and helping those who are lost, while others may look to profit from their ignorance. In the surrounding areas, there are sure to be tourist traps with overpriced, “authentic” souvenirs that will be advertised as the cheapest or best in all of Italy. Sprinkled in with those there will be inconspicuous looking places that are often passed over by tourists, but favorites of the locals.
I see how des Esseintes, the man de Botton wrote of, said “What was the good of moving when a person could travel so wonderfully sitting in a chair?” (11). When you travel in your mind you often imagine the highlights of the trip you would like to take and not the potential issues you could experience while in a new culture, or all the time spent in between places. Then, upon arriving at the destination the feelings experienced might be underwhelming after so much anticipation.
However, I would still argue it is important to travel somewhere outside of sitting in a chair because the art of traveling is much more than just seeing the sights that first come to mind. To me the art of traveling is about finding meaning in every experience, even if that includes a less than ideal interaction with a waitress or struggling to understand a public transport system. These moments offer a chance to understand a new culture and a different people’s way of life. Something I have found to change the way I view the world. Due to this, when I go to Italy I hope to not only appreciate the history more than a normal tourist, but all the aspects of travel that are often forgotten and overlooked.
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Italy: Imagined & Realized 