We have such an interesting variety of travel styles on this forum and with that comes our own expectations and decisions while traveling. For instance, I don’t want to rent a car in Europe when traveling solo, but for others it makes a lot of sense. Here’s my recent situation where I strongly considered breaking one of my own rules. How about you? Any self-imposed rules that you’ve changed while traveling?
While I was in Lecce, Italy, I stopped into a bookstore and saw this gorgeous book. “Puglia, a love story” by Mollica & Falcone is a heavy 350-page coffee table book filled with amazing photos of places I had been seeing while staying in the six towns in Puglia. But, the writing also drew me into this book, even having each page written in both Italian & English! I mentioned it to my husband during a FaceTime call and also to a daughter. (It’s not available on Amazon.). The day before I left Lecce, I went back to the bookstore and stood there with the book in my hand, contemplating if I could buy it. I still had lots of train rides & walking ahead of me: Rome, a flight to/from Palermo, Sulmona, Tivoli, Assisi & Spello and flights home to complete. I only pick up lighter souvenirs mid-trip. Lugging a heavy book all of those places didn’t make sense. : (
After I was back home, I was still thinking about that book. I checked on-line if there’s a way to buy it and gave up. But, there’s a special ending to this! My daughter gave me a late Mother’s Day gift to open “on a day when I’m feeling sad” while she was here for my husband’s memorial service. She said they had talked about the gift together while I was in Italy. Yes, she was able to find it on-line in Italy somehow & shipped it here! I ended up not breaking my travel rule of not buying something heavy mid-trip, and wow, this book is even more special now!