Upon arriving home from school, I’ve found myself with a dearth of meaningful activities to occupy my time. It feels as though I’ve spent the last several months sprinting through class assignments and extracurricular commitments, only to be brought to a screeching halt at the end of final exams. Now, I’m trying to force myself into relaxation mode even as anxious thoughts about my future nag me, telling me that I should start sprinting again and find something to do.
I’ve sought out solace in the stacks of National Geographic magazines that occupy various shelves and closet corners in my house. My grandparents subscribed to Nat Geo for many years, and several of their past issues have snuck back to DC with my mom. Flipping through Nat Geo is giving me at least a partial impression of the movement I’ve been craving, but it’s movement of a different kind—instead of jumping from task to task, I’m gliding to different locations and becoming absorbed in the authors’ travels. For all of you travel-lovers who are also feeling stagnant during the pandemic, here are a few incredible locations I’ve had the pleasure of reading about during my downtime.
Gubbio, Italy (“Italy Before the Romans” by Erla Zwingle, January 2005 issue)
A medieval town nestled in the Italian countryside? That image is enough for me to jump on a plane as soon as travel is safe again and spend a few days romping through Gubbio’s streets. Rome is majestic, but history buffs who want to uncover a glimpse of pre-Roman eras would do well to explore Italy’s countrysides, where Italic peoples like the Samnites and Etruscans have left a faint, yet awe-inspiring legacy.
Of course, the great architecture of Rome and the mighty empire this city represents are the first thing many Americans think of when they picture Italy. With that said, author Erla Zwingle points out in this article that many pagan traditions from pre-Roman, pre-Christian groups have worked their way into Italian culture, making towns like Gubbio havens for the long-ago past.
“Just as the soil of Italy today is rich in their tombs and terra-cottas, the culture of Italy today is equally rich in words and customs drawn from these pre-Roman peoples—their ideas, their ingenuity, and their piety, a multitude of elements which till now had been thought to originate with the Romans, but which it turns out they had merely adopted.”
Erla zwingle
Ancient pagan customs live on in ceremonial celebrations that flourish in towns like Gubbio. Take the Corsa dei Ceri, a grueling race in which teams of men haul 600-pound wooden pillars (called “Ceri”) through Gubbio’s steep, winding streets. This is a continuation of the ceremony that Gubbio’s Umbrian residents established long ago in honor of the town’s patron saint, Ubaldo. In the runners’ physical strain and the throbbing enthusiasm of the crowd, one can detect a collective energy that has been present for thousands of years.
Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park (“Red Hot Hawaii” by Jennifer S. Holland, October 2004 issue)
In the most volcanic place in the world, the landscape is constantly changing with the shift of tectonic plates and the drift of lava. We may stare at a world map and think of the world as unchanging, but volcanic eruptions defy the tidiness of latitude and longitude lines. Think of a lava flow that swallows towns and adds 570 acres of new land to the Big Island’s coast—that is one profound example that Holland explores in her article.
“Tiptoe over licorice twists of cooling lava, bathe in a spire of earthly steam, and bow closer to the fern that miraculously grabs a foothold in fresh tone. Listen to Hawaiians’ tales of their volcano goddess, Pele, and begin to notice her everywhere.”
Jennifer S. Holland
It seems like an impish trick of nature that we can gaze at these volcanoes and detect no dramatic change, yet they slowly and steadily create some of the most profound geographic changes scientists can conceive of. I suppose it’s tempting to think of a massive, ultra-destructive eruption like Mount Vesuvius and assume that all volcanic eruptions are this brutal, but Hawaii’s shield volcanoes are more patient than that. Lava roars from the depths of the earth and slowly coats the ground as it cools; then, remarkably, vegetation sprouts out of the hard, blackened landscape. This cycle repeats itself endlessly.
I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing these fire-spewing wonders of nature up close. Islands like Maui tend to have more appeal for travelers because of their excellent beaches, but adventurous travelers might want to pay a visit to the volcanoes next door.
The Canadian Rockies (“Northern Giant” by John Vaillant, November 2008 issue)
What an article this was! Vaillant is writing specifically about the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area, a section of virtually untouched wilderness in the Rockies, and the tremendous effort to protect its trees from the logging industry. His descriptions of hiking through the M-K landscape, where people are essentially obligated to create their own trails, indicate that this is no place for novice hikers. The trek over Misery Pass he captures within the first few paragraphs of the article is absolutely riveting to read about; it details the physical strain of keeping packhorses from tumbling into a gorge.
“In every direction glaciers loom, strangely luminous beneath a heavy gray sky.”
John Vaillant
Will I ever take a hike through the M-K? Most likely not, unless I have ample free time later in my life to do some serious preparatory hiking. Still, I find myself thrilled at the prospect of heading to the Canadian Rockies to climb massive ridges and gaze in satisfaction at vibrantly-hued lakes down below. Some of nature’s most amazing natural gems require a strenuous walk and the ability to “rough it,” and the views at the end of the hike are always worthwhile.
Reading articles like this one also gives me a renewed sense of gratitude for all of the people who have made it possible for the natural world to be preserved in parks and reserves. As Vaillant explains, this isn’t typically an easy or fair fight, and I need to remind myself that my ability to enjoy a place like the Canadian Rockies is the product of others’ advocacy. While I’m weathering the Boston winter, I might dream about the rustle of trees and the sight of the looming “looming glaciers” that Vaillant so eloquently conveys to his readers.
I’ve picked my way through countless travel guides and scouted out dozens of travel blogs, but there’s something absolutely magical about exploring other parts of the world through carefully-crafted remarks from seasoned writers. I owe great thanks to the talented writers and photographers of Nat Geo, who are giving me the valuable opportunity to “travel” even while I’m physically confined to my house during the pandemic. Stay tuned for another rendition of this post as I do more reading!
