Looking for Your Hot Buttons.
What motivates you? What gets you off the couch?
Another drink? A sandwich? A need to go to bed?
If you’re reading this blog, I’m guessing travel is one of your hot buttons.
Is it a trip to the mailbox, the mall or Mozambique?
What Inspires me?
How do you even begin to figure out what your hot buttons are?
Look at your coffee table. What magazines are there?
Conde Nast and National Geographic? Travel is probably on the list.
Sports Illustrated or Golf Digest may indicate a need for activity.
Architectural Digest… well, you get the idea.
Where Else?
The 20th-century idiot box, (AKA television), is an excellent view into what makes you tick.
Do you have travel shows set to save?
What about building D.I.Y. shows?
If it’s the Hallmark Channel, you probably need to visit a small Inn either in Maine or Vermont.
Then there are the endless cooking shows.
Focus.
You haven’t missed one episode of “America’s Got Tamales” or “Dicing With the Stars,” you might just be a foodie.
But what does that mean?
Some foodies need to follow the food chain from field to market to table.
Some want to experience cooking in Tuscany with Nonna (grandmother).
Others are happy to sit at a table and taste the end efforts of another chef.
What about wine or beers or liqueurs? You could plan a week just around sampling one of these.
I believe tasting a location is vital in experiencing it.
Certainly smelling the fresh bread, or the spice market, Mama’s all-day sauce goes hand in hand with tasting.
So how many hours a day do you need?
Can You See It?
Seeing a location is also vital to experiencing it. You can try to do Rome in a day, but it’s going to be a driveby, with little depth.
Do you want to travel all the way to Rome and only see the outside of the Colosseum? The Vatican? That’s a blink, not an immersion.
Listen to the roar of Iguazu Falls, the church bells on Sunday morning, the Serengeti at night.
Stop, look, listen.
Can You Feel It?
Beethoven, Mozart, Jimmie Hendrix. What inspired them? Do you want to visit their studios where they heard the music? Hemingway’s Northern Italy or Karen Blixen’s Africa, do the words come to you?
Stand where Marc Antony may have said “Friends, Romans, countrymen.” Walk where Cleopatra or the Virgin Mary trod.
Follow in the footsteps of Abraham, Martin or John.
Walking from the synagogue in Capernaum, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, I feel something I cannot describe.
What Inspires You?
So what is one of your hot buttons?
If I drop you in the middle of New York City right now, where will you head? The theater or fashion district? The Metropolitan or Guggenheim museums? Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center? Chinatown or Little Italy? Ground zero for recent history or the battery for old accounts?
There’s no right or wrong answer. All of these destinations are great for a variety of reasons. However, some probably make YOU tingle more than others.
I can’t tell you how many times someone has said, “I have been to _____ and never need to go back.” Often, they would tell me this the morning we were arriving in that location.
By finding out their hot buttons, I was able to make suggestions. They came back with a whole new appreciation for the destination.
Some people just do not like history, while others spend hours reading about it or crawling through ruins.
There are those who cringe at seeing “another church” while others marvel at the construction and decoration.
Some see a picture while others visualize the artist’s turmoil.
Some people don’t know the difference between Cacio e Pepe and a blue and white box you pull out of the pantry.
Find your hot buttons and hit it, pound it, push it real good.
“See Andros” Continued on Page T8. “Taste Thessaloniki” Continued on T14