Cities Provide a Bridge to more Bucolic Places.

• You don’t need a (-) Covid test to go home again. So head out of—and into—the country.

I know, Covid is so yesterday.

And yet, when traveling internationally of late, the negative-test requirement to get back in the US was very much a today problem—figuring out where to get the test, coordinating within a clinic’s schedule, obtaining the proper documents, and (of course) getting an actual negative. Waiting for the results would make the heart pound.

After all, for years now many people carry on with Covid and don’t even know it.

• It’s a big old world but…small is beautiful

Many folks are itching to get away. And ready to spend…and stand in line…and fight for a table…and hope for a ticket to that world-famous museum.

Good for them, right? Well, sure. Do that. But then, IMHO, leave the city and see the real country. And people. Find the eatery where the owners ask your name—and join you for homemade limoncello after dinner. Walk the trails that offer vast views of nature, not just urban sprawl. Rent the car that gets lost. By the sea, in the mountain, or with the villagers who are giddy to meet someone actually wants to meet them, not Mona Lisa.

Of course, I cherish my amazing memories in cities. But I also remember the pollution, pan-handlers, bloated prices, and noise. True fact: Deep bliss is more accessible in faraway spaces. And least that’s my experience and vision—and it gets stronger as I get older (and perhaps as I get weaker when it comes to navigating travel as a full-contact sport).

• “My idea of exercise is a good brisk sit.”

So said Phyllis Diller. And if you can sit with a view of the sea, a glass of wine, the smell of pizza in the wood oven, and the accordionist serenading from the distance, that’s wanderlust heaven.

As things open up, I hope fellow vagabonds ponder that. And get the chance to fall in love again. Not only with travel, but with life itself.