How it all started?
In 1953 the American writer John Steinbeck wrote an iconic article on Positano, Italy. The article has become famous, it has been quoted and requoted, taken as the ultimate guide to that part of the Amalfi Coast. It is a poetic, wise, evocative piece of writing. On top of everything, it is extremely funny in an understated manner. It made Positano into what it is today, despite claiming that the notoriously vertical village would never become popular for mass tourism or affluent tourists. Well, that didn't age well, I suppose.
Nevertheless, through this article, I fell vicariously in love with the area, and with this art of writing too because it conveyed the elusive atmosphere of a place. It gives you all the feels, the sea spray, Positano colours, flower smells, quirks of the locals, Positano's ups and downs (quite literally), together with the echoes of authentic Italian daily life. The writer's words make you feel as if you have lived there, loved it for eternity as if you rightly deserve to call it your own.
I am no Steinbeck, sadly, but I am a traveler, observer, compulsive note-taker, a small-scale Argonaut on a quest for beauty. Everything is fleeting, forgetting is merciless, the places rapidly change, so I want to make for myself a record of memories, a travel diary, to curate in words as in resin the sheer happiness that travelling always brought to me. To save the atmosphere of a special place in evocative writing. This is my secluded scriptorium where I work from the assumption that no one else would be interested. If this happens to resonate with anyone, I will be flattered, but this is primarily a personal outlet for words, observations, and thoughts on various places that I had the great luck of visiting.
The article that I found so inspiring is here: