PUB CHAT: Experiences through travel

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

― St. Augustine

Saint Augustine was born in 354 in the Roman province of Numidia on the North African coast. Well before supersonic jets, automobiles and even hot air balloons, the most efficient ways to travel long distances back then were via camels, cart drawn by horses or donkeys or, I suppose, one’s own two sandaled feet.

With those rudimentary ways of making a mile, I really wonder how much Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis — as he was more properly, if less fluidly, known — actually did travel. But no matter, the above quote attributed to him was incredibly prescient, if nothing else.

A group of 50 of us on a recent tour of Italy was reminded of that by our tour guide Mercedes, who told us that St. Augustine’s saying was one of her favorites. Of course, Mercedes — by her very occupation — has a vested interest in people traveling. If they don’t, she’s out of work.

The point, though, is what more modern day travel gurus such as Rick Steves and the late Anthony Bourdain want us to know: Seeing other lands, experiencing other cultures, listening to other languages and opinions are the things that open our own minds and eyes, and broaden our own horizons.

It is a big world out there, and even though some may say that 2024 is not the best time to get out into it — with conflicts raging in the Middle East and in Ukraine and in Sudan and in Haiti, to name just a few — I would argue it actually may be among the most important times to learn other viewpoints.

Had we not been traveling, I wouldn’t have had a conversation with a young waitress in Treviso who, knowing that we were from the United States, challenged how much we really cared about Ukraine. “We are close to it here in Europe, you are thousands of miles away, what do you really care?”

I told her she was entitled to her feelings but then followed up by asking what country has provided the most military aid and funds — by a longshot. She ended the challenge. It’s clearly the United States, and the world knows it. This is not meant to be political, so whether you think we are providing too much aid or not enough or whether we shouldn’t even be involved or should be involved more, the point is, the U.S. represents hope for a lot of people around the globe.

She gave me an extra shot of limoncello after the exchange.

Also, had we not been traveling, I wouldn’t have met the owner of a glass shop in Venice who asked me how I thought our presidential election was going to go and whether I felt the U.S. was “in crisis.”

I told her I honestly could not guess who will win the election, and she told me that matched up with her “unofficial polling.” She said every day in her shop she asked Americans whether they would be voting for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, and “some days it’s all Trump … and other says it’s all Harris.” (We happened to be there on what she called a “Trump Day”) As for a crisis, we ended up agreeing that almost every corner of the world is facing some kind of crisis or other these days.

Then she gave us a little discount on the glass souvenirs we were buying.

Had we not been touring on a stunning blue-sky day in Bologna, we wouldn’t have been detoured on the way back to our coach because of protests that were being planned in the politically active city.

Bologna is known not only for its world-famous food scene (think tortellini, lasagna Bolognese, mortadella) it also is one of the most civically engaged and liberal cities in Europe. These cops were not smiling or being friendly to tourists, they were serious. We assumed the protests would be about the Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East.

We were stopped at one street corner as a motorcade of black cars with darkly tinted windows and Italian flags sped by. I heard one cop say, “That’s Meloni.”

Giorgia Meloni is the prime minister, the highest ranking official in the country’s government, higher than the president. She also is the first woman to hold the position and is a member of the far-right political party that currently rules the parliament. She would be giving a speech that day in Bologna, which is what was drawing the protesters, we later learned.

It was the closest I’d ever come to any country’s leader.

And then finally, if we were not traveling, our group would not have experienced first-hand the pomp and circumstance of the oldest republic in the world, San Marino. Again, more properly known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino, it is landlocked within Italy high atop Mount Titano. With only 23 square miles and 33,000 citizens, it is the fifth smallest country in the world. Yet it was founded 17 centuries ago with a constitution that dates back to 1600.

In world affairs, San Marino is barely a blip on a radar screen. However, during World War II the tiny country is credited with having welcomed and protected tens of thousands of refugees — mostly Jewish. It also made President Abraham Lincoln an honorary citizen in 1861 because of his role in our Civil War and standing up for democratic republics.

And as to that ages-old republic, we happened to be there on one of the two days a year — Oct. 1 (the other is April 1) — when the leadership of the government changes. The captain’s regents are the two heads of state of San Marino, and every six months the legislative body elects two new ones, one from each of two opposing political parties. It’s almost like electing two new presidents or two new speakers of the House … every six months.

So, the day we were there was the Investiture Ceremony of the Captains Regent, a public holiday that is almost like our inauguration day with speeches, parades of dignitaries and military bands through the historical center, and cannons being fired to honor the continuation of tradition in the centuries-old republic.

I’m not suggesting by any means that a twice-a-year “changing of the guard” would be efficient or productive in our United States, but I do mean to say that travel opens your eyes to a whole world of different ways of doing things.

Had we not been traveling, we wouldn’t have experienced that traditionally historic and joyful day in San Marino, and I also would not have met Giorgio Marzi, a journalist who is writing a book about the republic’s role in saving all those refugees during WWII.

All of this reminds me of some other words about travel, not by St. Augustine, but by one of my favorite American authors, Mark Twain. From his book “The Innocents Abroad,” an account of a trip he took on a chartered steamship through Europe and the Holy Land in 1867: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”