Back to Travels

March the 7th, 2020: in the general scared and incredulous astonishment the Italian television announced the closure of the borders of the Lombardy region, becoming from that moment on a red zone.

No one could enter the region or leave it, except for documented and imperative necessity needs.

Even the transfers within the municipality of residence had to be minimal. The advice was to stay at home.

This is how it started a period of closures and openings, softening and sharpening of the travel restrictions that with different modalities has been involving the whole planet for almost one and a half year.

The word lockdown has entered our everyday dictionary. And surgical masks, sanitizing gels, PCR and serological tests have become part of our daily routine. Those masks that till two years ago we used to see on the faces of some Asians travelling on the planes.

Now, with the vaccination plan we are going towards a more released phase, with less travelling restrictions, both on national and international itineraries, and supported also by the warm season we are going back to travels.
Someone with the rush flowing from a long wait, someone with the caution that the events of the last year thought us.

We can go back to realize the desires we have cultivated in our thoughts in the past months and reach the destinations we dreamed about. We are getting used again to plan out trips, to the seaside, to the mountains, to visit a friend that lives far away from us.

We are regaining the travels we have missed so much, the way a body regain strength after a long period of forced rest.

The times when with a couple of clicks on the app of the cell phone we could buy a flight tickets to go everywhere in the world seem still to be far away.

Booking a flight is more troublesome, less flight routes available, updated traveling protocols to check, passenger locator and declaration forms to fill in … and with a bit more slowness and awareness our mind gets used to the idea of travelling again.

We can rewrite our page with new words, a return to travels that is gifting the opportunity to reset its modalities, priorities, rhythms and distances.

We will discover hidden experiences close to home, we will consider different means of transport, we will choose active holidays with more outdoor activities, we will look for destinations where we can take care of ourselves and our health and we will include in our horizons the health of the planet as well.

We will slow down, maybe, and we will appreciate, maybe more consciously, this return to travels.

 

Photo credits: Stefano Butturini