by Katie-Butler Johnson
We’ve all heard the proverb “You Snooze, You Lose.” It first appeared in a 1968 mattress commercial. It warns us not to procrastinate but to seize opportunities when they are first presented.
And when it comes to travel, that saying rings true. Organized trips fill up fast. You need to nail down your plans before all available spots and flights are booked. You don’t want to linger on a waiting list and not know till the last minute if you’ll make the cut. Been there - didn’t make it!
I’ve been blessed to have been able to travel the world and visit all 7 continents. My first big trip was to Europe in 1958. I was 18 and had completed 4 years of high school French plus a year of college French. My parents gifted me the trip for me to become fluid in the language. They’d found a family in Paris for me to spend six weeks with during that summer.
In early June of ‘58, I boarded a chartered ship taking American and Canadian college students to France. We crossed the Atlantic and arrived at the French Port -- Le Havre. From there, I walked to the train station, bought a ticket and boarded a train for the remaining 2½ hour trip to Paris. From the Paris train terminal, I took a taxi to the 16th Arrondissement, 5 Rue Benjamin Goddard where my host family lived. When I look back on that journey, I think it was pretty gutsy for that 18year-old-girl to head out alone. I never had any problems on that trip; I was young, full of energy and craved adventure.
After six weeks speaking a mix of French and English with my host family’s teens, (Francoise and Ghislaine wanted to practice their English), I was to get myself to Venice to visit family friends. I booked a berth on the iconic Paris Orient express for the overnight trip. As a teen, I didn’t know much about art and history. I wasn’t familiar with Venice’s masterpieces. But, what I lacked in knowledge, I made up for with youthful stamina. I went everywhere and saw everything but didn’t really know much about what I’d seen.
In October 2024, I returned to Venice. I understood the art I was seeing this time. I was traveling with my two sons. In October 2023, I’d taken my two daughters to Canada for a girls’ trip on a Ponant cruise through the Great Lakes. This past October was my sons’ trip.
My sons, Clay (59 and lives in Austin) and Zach (42 and lives in LA) didn’t know each other very well before the trip. There’s 17 years between them. Clay was grown and gone by the time Zach was old enough to understand what a brother was. In today’s world, families often live at great distances from one another. I wanted to strengthen our family ties by spending unscripted time together. They accepted my invitation to join me on a trip anywhere they chose. They chose Italy. I booked a Windsurf Cruise around Italy’s boot. I’m determined to leave my four children with great memories of our shared adventuress.
My boys and I spent two full days in Venice. One could spend a lifetime exploring that Unesco World Heritage Site, but we were scheduled to sail out of Venice at the dawn of the 3rd day. We made stops in Croatia, Montenegro and Sicily before reaching Salerno. We ended in Civitavecchia – the port for Rome. The boys opted for the cruise’s active excursions - riding mountain trails in ATVs and scuba diving. I did more leisurely things like winetasting at vineyards and learning to make cheese. But I did make the trip to the Caldera of Mount Etna’s Volcano.
Oh, there’s one interesting tidbit I want to share with you. I asked our guide at Rome’s Colosseum how he survived financially without tourists during the pandemic. He said there was a strict law: you couldn’t go outside your home more than a few meters from your front door for anything that wasn’t deemed an emergency. Monitors watched neighborhoods to catch people breaking the law. There was one exception: You could walk a dog. The tour guide owned four dogs. He rented them out for walks. People actually paid him to walk his dogs.
תגובות