---
title: "What a Great Time to Be Alive: Explore Without Prejudice"
description: "Our new series, What a Great Time To Be Alive, opens with Lessons Learned Away from Home and the editor's own admissions: the verdict she leaves behind, the ..."
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-09-07T07:00:00.000Z
updated: 2026-09-08T09:43:38.878Z
canonical: https://richmondaypaper.com/article/great-time-to-be-alive-three-things-travel-europe
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-scenic-view-of-florence-s-iconic-cathedral-at-sunset-highlig-16395961.jpg
categories: Mindful Travel
content_type: Editorial
region: Europe, Italy
publication: Rich Travel Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

The best lessons of my life did not arrive at my desk. They arrived in a town where I did not know the way to the bakery, in the week when the phone and the inbox stayed at home. The routines that fill an ordinary day also hide us from ourselves, and it takes about a week without them before you begin to hear what you actually think. That is why we launched this summer a new series "What a Great Time to Be Alive: Lessons Learned Away from Home." Each piece looks inside your heart, at the engine of your future memories and how you changed while away. I began with the things I discovered when on my last book tour in Europe, making sure they stay in my heart forever.

## Explore Without Prejudice

Most of us arrive to a new destination with the place already indexed in a certain category. You have read the reviews and seen the photographs, formed an opinion of the town before the taxi has left the airport. I have done this more times than I would like to admit and every time the place I imagined was different. A town in Europe will tell you what it is, but only in its own words, at certain hours. Go to the market at seven in the morning, when the stallholders are still talking to each other and not to you. Sit in the church at dusk, when everyone have gone and an old woman is lighting the candles for people you will never meet. Stand in the Opera house before opera lovers will come in for the concert. The beauty of your travel isn't measured by a slow pace, but by a fresh pair of eyes and an open mind, so you can listen to the local vibes before defining it.

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