Carol Amendola D'Anca’s Post

In my years of experience leading groups on lifestyle excursions to small villages in southern Italy, I’ve discovered travelers typically fall into three distinct categories. All can be fun, but some stand out as truly awakening and transformative. Tourist: The tourist buys a travel package to a certain destination or an “all inclusive” vacation with meals, hotel and sometimes airfare included. This is sometimes referred to as escape travel. You just want to get out of town and see something different. It’s the overflow of tourists that’s led to overcrowded popular destinations, lengthy lines for exhibits, and, more recently, a growing backlash from locals eager to reclaim their cities. Traveler: A traveler wants something more than a tourist package. They are more thoughtful about choosing a destination. Shopping, standing in lines or taking selfies are not their reasons for traveling. Travelers want to immerse themselves and experience another culture as a “temporary local” in a new part of the world. They return home with an expanded view of the world. I call this reality travel. Pilgrim: While the traveler learns about the world and begins exploring new perspectives for living life well, pilgrims take the experience even farther and learn about themselves. They do this by being open to leaving home and looking at themselves from a distance, sometimes not even realizing they are about to find or re-discover things about themselves that were lost. Pilgrims find the seeds of what they can become through meaningful travel experiences. It’s those little moments that add up to powerful changes, sometimes immediately and sometimes over time when the seeds add up over time. I call this “transformational” travel. It’s interesting that more people than ever are traveling today but there’s not not more transformational travel. Maybe sometimes an escape is all that’s needed, or the best Instagrammable photos for social media, or what’s called “bragging rights.” But the traveler, and even to a greater extent, the pilgrim, returns home with new personal discoveries as a result of incredible travel experiences. It’s those little moments that lead to discovery and change. I would love to know where you will travel this year and what you are hoping as an outcome. Photo taken in Paestum Italy where travelers were surprised to see greek temples. Standing in front of a 2500 year old structure that's never been renovated or re-constructed is impactful.