Cherishing Moments of Boredom on Vacation
When I planned my holiday around my pets, I didn't realize I was actually creating the perfect summer holiday for where I am now in life.
How do you plan your summer holidays? What are your priorities when planning a vacation?
Back in May, my goal was to go somewhere not very far that would accommodate my 17-year-old cat, Tiger. And my dog as well.
As I’ve just got back from a week away, in this post I’ll share some of the highlights from my stay and a few takeaways.
My main problem over the last years with traveling has mainly been my pets. Especially Tiger, who I couldn’t bear to leave with anyone else because I think at her age she might not handle it well.
There’s this whole idea that cats are attached to houses and not people but I knew that my own feline wasn’t that way. She’ll go anywhere as long as my partner, Guido, is there.
So, I picked a destination that was close enough and didn’t involve a very long trip by car, my beloved Val Trebbia, but a bit higher than usual, up in the mountains
Basically, I picked a destination that was away from Cremona but not too long a drive and where we knew we could take a small stopover.
The mountains are not very high but enough to give one a sense of distance.
The river Trebbia runs through it. The water is among the clearest in Italy and is delightful to swim in.
What I craved was:
A week of doing absolutely nothing.
No running around checking out beautiful sites.
No exhausting excursions.
I wanted a holiday where the biggest and most complicated decision I had to take was which trattoria to pick of the two present in the tiny village I was staying in.
I wanted to read, eat well, lie in the sun, swim in the river, and walk my dog.
I got to do most of all these items on my list and I’m blissfully happy I did.
What made this vacanza bellissima
Sometimes, doing nothing is the best thing you can do.
Doing nothing does something magical to our souls and our minds.
In a FOMO centered-world that constantly keeps us on the go with news updates and social media posts, a week of nothing could be just what one needs to make sense of things and rejuvenate.
Want to know what made things simply perfect?
The day we got to Corte di Brugnatello, there had been some really bad storms and on arrival, there was no phone service, no internet, and no tv for the following 48 hours. It felt so liberating to know that nobody and no news could reach me.
This had been just what I wanted.
In the evenings, people would take their chairs out and chat in the dark until late or play cards at the bar centrale.
I’d fall asleep to the sound of summer evening conversations nearby and it reminded me of the long lost summers of my childhood where music from distant jukeboxes, cicadas and the sound of card games were my bedtime lullaby.
Tiger took possession of the new apartment as if she’d always belonged there and seemed perfectly at ease. I want to take a minute to appreciate how brave she was.
This is a cat who’s terrified of leaving the house and is shy around people. She lost her tail when she was a kitten and apparently has bad memories.
True bravery is this, doing things when they terrify you.
Jaime instead, sprained her knee on the second day and was unable to walk for a few days. But she met a charming neighbor dog, Argo, with whom she made friends.
Within two days of being there, people I didn't know had begun to greet me.
I read, wrote in my journal, finished up my books, caught up with my Substack reading, and discovered which bar made the best cappuccino.
At times I was even bored. A good kind of boredom.
I found myself taking very few pictures mostly because I wasn't in an Instagram-worthy place but I also wanted to enjoy the moment fully.
We had the luck of being able to attend two nights of the Bobbio Film Festival where they showed movies with the actors and film directors there to comment and lead a discussion after. I got to meet the Manetti Bros and the actor, Edoardo Leo.
We got to walk our very own red carpet. The movies were projected in a former monastery from the middle-ages where The Name of the Rose was shot and it was heartwarming to see crowds lining up to watch movies.
Crowded cinemas are something I miss so much.
We have to listen to ourselves more.
We have to dismiss the noise around us that blocks out the sound of our own inner voice and listen carefully to what our needs are.
It’s so easy to feel we have to pack in experiences and places to see while we’re away. There’s certainly a time and a place for all that. But it doesn’t need to be a pre-requisite at all.
Maybe something less glamorous is speaking to our hearts and if we’re really lucky, we get to listen and honor our needs.
I don’t dismiss the benefits of living in a connected world even for a minute. I wouldn’t be here running my own business if it hadn’t been for the power of the Internet and social media.
But I do wonder about building spaces in which we heed ourselves and cultivate the capacity to disconnect from the outside to nurture ourselves and where we are in life. And meet ourselves there.
Spaces that allow us to come back refreshed and deal with our day-to-day with curiosity and enthusiasm.
What do you look for in a holiday?
You look so relaxed! And it’s always good to see Guido again. Love to you all.
Che bella vacanza con ì suoi animali domestici. 🐈🐕