When was the first time I felt I was travelling?

When was the first time I felt I was travelling? Difficult question to answer. But I am almost sure during my several transfers. Transfer is one of the features of travelling. The line between A (home) and B (destination).

The tranfer

Returning to the question, it is difficult to answer because since I was born I have been used to moving regularly, visiting my relatives in Liguria (north of Italy) and Campania (south of Italy) many times a year. So as an integral part of my life, since I was a baby, traveling is not the exception but the certainty.

I will never be able to forget the hours spent at the window watching seas, mountains, hills pass by. I will not forget the immense boredom spent in traffic on the motorway, the constant asking my parents ” how much longer? ”, ” How long do we stop at the motorway restaurant? ” being able to stretch your legs and breathe fresh air.

What represented for me?

Looking back, I consider those journeys, especially the journey traveled by car, as a child and adolescent to be decisive for the person I am now. Why? Because they were those moments of reflection, of reordering ideas, of maximum use of the imagination to survive the boredom imposed by the movement itself. The boredom I felt as a child still attracts me, I don’t know why, even today. I do not shy away from the sight of a trip by car or bus lasting several hours, on the contrary I prefer them to a trip by plane with short times. I will not forget the 17 hours by bus from Prague to Brussels, the 21 from Brussels to Pisa.

What did i see?

In addition to the time you give yourself, it gives you the opportunity to observe the territory in which you are passing, to admire breathtaking views, such as:

•  the Swiss Alps,
• the Croatian rocky coasts and its islands
• the dunes of the Arabian desert
• Canadian and Finnish coniferous forests crossed by waterways,
• the French and Dutch lowlands

or otherwise extraordinary human infrastructures such as:

• the Eurotunnel under the Channel,
• Renzo Piano’s new bridge over Genoa,
• infinite alpine tunnels.

What do you learn?

Moving at high speed offers you the possibility of learning to orient yourself in space, being able to translate maps into territories.  Certainly the aircraft also retains this quality, perhaps more effectively. How wonderful is it to see the earth drifting further and further away from you as you fly? Being able to give an overview of the territory you walk on every day? The plane also gives you, most of all, that impression of superiority over nature.It shortens space and time like a teleport, canceling all those physical constraints of your body. Who knows how it will be even more surprising to be able to travel in space flights, recently commercialized. What view will there be?

Please leave me a comment , maybe by answering this question: When was the first time I felt I was travelling?