TRAVEL TO KNOW PEOPLE AND CULTURES
It's always difficult to talk about travel because there is no right or best way to travel, sta a ognuno trovare la propria modalità e sentirsi a proprio agio in quello che sta facendo.
We have always traveled for get to know places, people and cultures.
We are Giulia and Guido and from 2018 we became traveling companions, as well as life. We met in a small village in the Italian Alps called Macugnaga many years ago.
How we started travelling?
After short trips to Scotland, England and Italy, in October 2018 we went in Iran for two weeks. We had such a good time that we didn't want to leave. The people are extremely welcoming and generous, le moschee e gli altri edifici sono straordinari e il Paese è ricco di storia.
Naturally, we were well aware of the political situation and the dress code, ma questo non ci ha impedito di fare domande e di ascoltare diversi punti di vista. Abbiamo esplorato l’Iran viaggiando come fanno gli abitanti del posto, cioè usando i mezzi pubblici e i taxi condivisi. Anche questo fa parte dell’esperienza culturale che cerchiamo quando viaggiamo.
Our longest trip: The Silk Road
We liked traveling to discover other worlds so much that, In the 2019, we set off to make a dream come true: The Silk Road. We've been on the road for five months. We went and Milano in Beijing and then we returned to Milan passing through Moscow following the Transmongolic railway.
And the job? We put it on hold. Guido was a nurse in Scotland e Giulia un’insegnante di inglese freelance a Milano.
La ricchezza culturale che ci ha dato questo viaggio è enorme. Ci ha reso più consapevoli del mondo, of countries and cultures too often ignored and forgotten. It changed our concept of time and made us slow down.
Returning to Europe was not easy. Going back to work wasn't easy. Experiencing Covid-19 and its lockdowns has not been easy. But we managed to leave again, always thanks to our work, and to obtain a special visa for the New Zeland, where we are currently. Living and working in this country has allowed us not only to explore it thoroughly, but also to travel in Pacific Islands and discover even different and interesting cultures.
What it means to travel to discover new cultures?
Means, first of all, slow down. Traveling slower gives you the chance to connect deeply with the food, local customs and people.
Rather than just going to the main tourist destinations, we like to discover lesser-known wonders and learn something about the culture and history of the place we are visiting.
We like it walk in the secondary streets and observe what is around us.
An example?
In Samarkand, in Uzbekistan, a wall divides the most touristy part from the homes of the local people, so that tourists do not see the city as normal and less rich. There are, But, delle porticine che collegano questi due mondi e noi abbiamo deciso di “go the other way”. There we saw the houses, the streets with drainage channels on the side or in the middle, we found small ancient mosques, full of handmade decorations, we were invited by a baker to see his oven and Giulia was also surrounded by little girls leaving school who wanted to say a few words in English!
The emotions you feel and the life you discover when you go beyond the wall of fast and mass tourism is the reason that drives us to travel.
I could even talk for hours about when we stayed 5 family days in a village in Taveuni, an island in Fiji, and how we spent Sunday with them cooking and eating on the floor. Or when we went with this family to look for the island's flower in the middle of the jungle, that only grows there, il Tangimoucia.
And how can we forget, sempre in Uzbekistan, il Nukus art museum, or rather the Museo State Art Museum of the Republic of Karakalpakstan dedicated to Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971), which houses not only a large collection of Uzbek objects from the third century BC. until today, but also the second largest Russian avant-garde collection (Russian avant-guard) in the world. Stravinskij si trasferì in Karakalpakstan (name of the province of Nukus) in the 1950s and began collecting numerous objects and works of art by famous and non-famous artists. When the museum opened in 1966, gave a space to both Indigenous and Russian art which would otherwise have been lost, also due to the censorship and prohibitive laws imposed by Stalin, for which Stravinsky himself was considered an "enemy of the people".
Our travel blog
These are just a few examples of the cultural experiences we have had over the course of our lives trips, you can find many more in our blog, mignontravels.com, where we share itineraries and travel tips, always paying attention to cultural experiences.
On the blog we like to share our stories and experiences, not to show off and tell you about our private life, but to make your journey easier and to help you get moving even when it seems too difficult or impossible to do.
Right, when you discover other cultures it's not all rosy, there are things you may not like, like the strong patriarchal society in Fiji, or censorship policies in China, ma travel and knowing doesn't mean accepting everything and pretending nothing happened, it means learning, ragionare e sviluppare un pensiero critico su come gira veramente il mondo.
On your next trip, if you notice that you are running too fast, stop and observe the people, the details, ask one more question, be curious. Siamo profondamente convinti che questo avrà un impatto molto profondo e renderà unico il tuo viaggio.
