The One that Got Away

I’m sure you all heard about that syndrome travelers suffer from that is characterized by the urge to add a million destinations to a small trip. You check the map and there is just so many interesting things around your route that you decide to include every single one of them to the itinerary. The problem is that you depend on time, and the time frame you have in your mind is very different from the one in real life. Time flies by fast and you struggle to keep up with your plans, but only ends up visiting the place in a hurry, that is, superficially. That or worse, sometimes you end up giving up on that destination in the middle of the trip. And we ALWAYS regret it afterwards…

I’ve learned that the hard way: giving up Giverny on a trip to Paris for lack of time, giving up Colonia del Sacramento on a trip to Montevideo for the same reason… And now I have to live with the doubt of questioning myself if I will ever have time go visit those places again and reclaim what I missed…

However, maybe worse than planning to visit a place and giving up on it while in transit is discovering the existence of an amazing destination very close to where you traveled AFTER you get home.

Yes, that has already happened to me many times and that sudden acknowledgement always gives me a feeling of stupidity! If I researched about that destination for months, how can I have let that one amazing place get away?

Let me mention the most recent example. We planned a trip to Italy for over a year (!) with some friends and we thought we had a great itinerary in our hands: some days in Rome, slow travel around Tuscany, finishing up in Venice and Verona. The trip was amazing, of course! It’s always a pleasure to finally visit a place you have been dreaming about your whole life! Yet, a month after I got back from Italy, I laid my eyes on these astonishing ruins of an abbey, the Abbey of Saint Galgano, and researching for it on Google Maps I discovered it is only 25 kilometers away from Siena, where we stayed for three days!

I have this fascination for ruins and, can’t quite explain why, especially ruins that still have walls, but have no ceiling. As if the sky was the only thing we were to supposed to have over our heads. Baths of Caracalla, in Rome, for example, is so hauntingly beautiful I still sigh while thinking of it today. Lisbon also has something similar, that I also let get away: the Carmo Convent. The ruins of a convent with no ceiling in the heart of Portugal’s capital city. At the time, we decided to check the convent on our last day in Lisbon, however, our last day there was December 24th. What we didn’t know was that, in Portugal, not only December 25th is a national holiday, but also the 24th. When we got there, the place was closed and I nearly cried.

It really bumps me out when I discover beautiful places right after I’ve just been there. Of course I try to see it on the bright side, that if I am ever to go back there, I’ll have something new and amazing to see. But I’m not a full-time traveler and it scares me a bit thinking that I may never have the chance to go back.

Has this ever happened to you? Tell me your story and how you feel when that happens!

Source: www.sangalgano.it