The Road Less Traveled

It was New Year’s Eve on our first international trip together, a 10-day holiday vacation in Florence in 1998, that molded the way we travel. We woke from a late nap, walked to a trattoria for a leisurely dinner and then wandered into Piazza Della Signoria where vendors sold roasted chestnuts and the sounds of jazz drifted from a stage through the evening air.

We wandered close to the stage, savoring the chestnuts, and before we knew it, an orchestra had taken their seats, men dressed in medieval costumes were around the Palazzo Vecchio and a crowd had filled the piazza. In what seemed to be a blink of an eye, we were front and center as the music played, wine and prosecco flowed, young people danced and snaked through the crowd, and fireworks went off around us.

The countdown began and we were in 1999, at the right place at the right time, enjoying a night we’ll never forget. From this utterly delightful surprise we have learned to take our time on every trip, limit what we try to do in any one day and avoid, when possible, the most heavily traveled roads. To this day, we remember a picnic at the Boboli Gardens more than any ristorante or trattoria we visited.

More than two decades later, we had a similar experience on a trip to Kyoto: It was a day of rest from the “must-see” temples and shrines, and we stayed close to our guest house. Without crowds, high expectations or any urgency to the day, wandered through Southern Higashiyama and stumbled upon the often-overlooked artistic gem that is Kawai Kanjiro’s house and later the tranquility of the Zen Buddhist temple of Kennin-ji.

Yes, we’ve missed some iconic sites and wasted precious hours with lazy mornings, but that just means we had more time to find a hidden gem or two when we least expected it.