October 23, 2023: Sending love from abroad

Monday Morning Magic from Inkandescent® PR + Publishing Co. — It’s cliche to say that traveling opens your mind, body, spirit, heart and soul … but I’m going to say it anyway on this glorious morning in Venice, Italy.

I’m here with my son, Dylan, who is taking a semester off from his grad program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design to work for an architecture firm in Basel, Switzerland. He asked me to fly over to join him on his one-week off, and yesterday, he ran the annual Wizz Air marathon through the streets and canals of this watery island. As I meandered for an hour through the maze of streets and squares to meet him at the end of the race, I crossed through the flooded Piazza San Marco, passed what seemed like millions of tourists, and imagined life hundreds of years ago in this breathtakingly romantic city.

I haven’t been to Europe in years, and am reminded how truly unique every culture is, from its words and tone of the language to the clothes (much to the chagrin of my son, I look so American in my cowgirl boots and fanny pack), to the glorious flavors and choices of the food. It all reflects the dramatically different but oh-so-similar worlds that we live in.

While Dylan hates to have his picture taken, much less published, you can catch a glimpse of him above as a sunbeam kisses his face post-race.

I also want to share some moments I’ve snapped during our adventure in Italy. Yes, our flight was canceled due to the bomb scare in the French airports last week — so we simply hopped on a train and, for 7 hours, were gifted with views of the unbelievably gorgeous Swiss countryside.

Tomorrow we head to Milan, then back to Switzerland. I’ll then take a train to Paris and fly back to NYC from there. You can see more of what I am seeing if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram.

In the meantime, I leave you with these words from Pico Iyer: “A person susceptible to ‘wanderlust’ is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.”

And this, from Maya Angelou: “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”

Until next Monday: May you see the beauty around you wherever you are this week. — With love from abroad, Hope Katz Gibbs, founder and president, Inkandescent® Inc. Inkandescent.us

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