Hi from Rick: Wake Up Before the Tourists
 |
| Europe is at its best before the tourists wake up. |
Dear Traveler,
I'll never forget waking up with the locals on the Italian Riviera, in early March. The morning sun kisses the tip of Vernazza's bell tower and greets a sleepy village. There's a refreshing damp cool in the air and a rare Italian silence. Then, a distant rooster angrily crows "kee-kee-ree-kee" (as they say in Italian) at the modern world.
The harbor square is quiet — littered with calloused little boats, still beached for the winter. As the town wakes up, clusters of locals gather here, where painting and puttering are spectator sports. In the next week or so, umbrella'd restaurant tables will push the boats back into the water, marking the opening of the tourist season.
This pre-tourist calm reminds me that even during "peak season" throughout Europe — along medieval ramparts, churches, produce markets, Alpine farmsteads and Riviera villages — the local culture thrives while the tourists sleep.
As I cross the square in search of an early-morning espresso, a lady whose husband was out all night fishing beckons me with a fish-filled wheelbarrow. Pawing through it like a sale bin at the mall, she introduces me to the frutti di mare: a tiny red snapper, electric eel, big octopus, and a slippery bunch of anchovies.
Picking up a shiny, six-inch anchovy, and threatening me with it as if it were a rattlesnake, she says, "This was swimming at three this morning. He will be dinner tonight...maybe for you!"
On your next trip, make a point to get out before breakfast and rub elbows with the locals as they begin their day. Imagine this as you wander through this month's Travel News, where we'll take you from Budapest to Venice, to the northwest corner of Spain...to Tehran...and back.
Before long, roosters will crow differently and "hold the anchovies" is something you'll do with a new friend.
Happy travels,
Rick