8:52am

The constraints of a given place become a way to savor the little there is even more. Waking up in this small apartment in Ravello, with its small kitchen, handful of dishes, its tiny moka pot; but that friction giving me that feeling of being so ingrained in the experience, the gratitude of the moment, the smell of the ground coffee, the sound of the bubbling water, the sherbert-colored sunrise on the patio. I could very much get used to this.

11:32am

The whole idea of time-capsules, mini-epiphanies, prosaic forcing functions. It’s this whole notion of building up these vignettes over time, almost as second memory.

It’s very similar to the way that photographing changes how I look at things, that a regular logging practice (and subsequent/timely pruning, and prose processing) will help me stay attuned with what is intuitively resonant to me.

9:10am

Having stopped in Amalfi midway through my run and come to appreciate Ravello for being and feeling more lived in. Ravello isn’t as touristy because its way harder to get to.

I travel for the experience of seeing good life being lived in other ways than I might be exposed to. And when I think about harder to get to places and experiences are going to become more valuable, because they naturally filter out the people who are looking for the cheaper highs of novelty-seeking.11. And for those of us willing to suffer a bit, the upside is that we savor things more when they’re difficult.

But getting there isn’t the only constraint. Old town Florence is easy to reach and still feels lived in, maybe because it was shaped by the constraints of when it was made.

Mod, writing about how tourism is reshaping Rome:

I keep thinking about the mid-2000s as the last moment of ‘authentic’ tourism to major cities… Now you have to stretch to find those kinds of experiences / interactions. I spent four nights in Rome last month, and … wow … central Rome is rivaling Tokyo for Disneyland vibes.”

And the same problem is gutting Venice. The risk is that it’s going to be deserted by the people that actually live there and make it a city, sooner than it’s going to sink into the ocean. The people who make it a city are the ones who can’t afford to stay.

So how do we not ruin a place with tourism? I don’t think the answer is a policy. When we’re able to articulate what we respect and revere, then you can decide you want to conserve it — but you have to tell stories about it, and tell them to the right people, so that enough of them believe it’s worth keeping around.

8:31am

We absorb the nature of the places around us. I’m on this run along these terraced hillsides on the Amalfi coast, held up by dry-stone walls, planted with lemon groves under chestnut-pole pergolas, and I keep thinking to myself “how could you be mad about life when it’s this good?” It’s far too short to be occupied with control, nitpicking and caring about trivial shit. This is enough. This could be enough. I realize how I’m feeling now is directly proportional to the discomfort I’m putting myself in, is in this run is really challenging, the conveniences and nicities of normal travel are stripped away; but that’s maybe why I appreciate it all more.

11:08am

So many restaurants here have no music playing, it’s just conversation and the clinking of plates and silverware. It’s almost like people are afraid of awkward silence in the US. Or they are afraid to be left alone with their thoughts.

10:01am

More unexplainable cultural osmosis: life lived in the moment. Not focused on hyper-optimization, “manifesting”, growth, just living very fully in the moment. In the same way that an impatient driver on the road is contagious, maybe the pervasive growth mentality, the keeping up with Joneses, the bigger and better than you mentality bleeds into our brains (further exacerbated by the social media and advertising hijacking our tribal instincts and reward pathways). I didn’t see any billboards in Florence or Ravello.

7:33am

Taken aback by the size of things here. And Americans’ relationships with trash and waste. Tiny wastebins; our hosts—maybe sensing that we are yankees—tell us that anything we can’t fit in them would have to be deposited in the street-side receptacles. Everything seems more right-sized here; bulk-sized and bulk-buying taking on new meaning. Everything is bigger (but not necessarily better…) in the United States. Bigger portions, bigger groceries, bigger cars (to fit more groceries), bigger ambitions, more consumption, and more trash. So much trash, so much waste.