Each year at this time, I perform a ritual sacrifice of guidebooks before heading off on a two-month research trip. If you don’t want to see a travel writer giddy with boxcutter joy as he slits the spine of his latest guidebooks, don’t click play. But out of this destruction comes new life, as we set out to bring forth a new season of lovingly updated Rick Steves guidebooks.
Between now and the end of May, I’ll be in Greece, Italy, and France, plowing under the old and bringing forth the new — all so we can enjoy happier travels. And for those who’d like to travel along with me, I’ll be posting nearly every day here on my blog and on my Facebook page. So get set and let your traveling friends know: We’ve got a lot of vivid (and shocking) travel thrills on the way, right here.
We will be in Italy in May too! Happy Travels!
I just can’t do that to those guidebooks. Last year I went to Munich, Gimmelwald and Paris and took along three whole guidebooks for Germany, Switzerland and Paris.
Those books sit on my shelf and are special to me now because they travelled with me.
Oh well, foolish sentimental me I guess!
I am hoping once you get to Greece, that a Muse will inspire you to do a show on Ancient Art and what an impact it had on the western world. Africa, Egypt , Ancient Persia and Greece had an incredible influence on the western world. Their cultures impacted the art in the Middle Ages , Renaissance, Impressionism, Modern Art and so forth.
I will never forget an Art class I took, where the professor had us look at metopes and friezes of people sitting around having a meal, then the professor showed the class an impressionist painting that was influenced by the metopes and freizes. Also, how Modigliani was influenced by African and Cycladic art. One of the most interesting was a Greek shield that had Dionysos and Maneads on it with flowers raining down etc and then showed us The Birth of Venus by Boticelli…,incredible. This would make for a great show.
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I agree with Don! Once in a while on a trip we may rip out a page to take along for the day, but I love my guide books and if I get an updated version I will give the old one to friends who are thinking of traveling. They always say they will get it back to us but we never see it again!
I need to get some box cutters! I use scissors on my guidebooks, and that’s more difficult. I absolutely cut the books up – anything to keep the weight down. Sometimes I bring the extracts back and put a rubber band round the reconstituted book, but often not. My photos and blog are my souvenirs.