Guidebook
Discover Yourself in Italy Guidebook & Journal
“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”— Henry David Thoreau
The journey has an accompanying English language Guidebook that is meant to guide you throughout the journey (not dictate to you). The Guidebook is a rich 48-page booklet that is the culmination and distillation of years of travelling to Italy myself, writing about my experiences, and documenting my reflections. It also includes important material and readings from philosophers, spiritual anecdotes, and excerpts from travellers who also found solace in Italy.
How does this Guidebook differ from other travel guides?
You will find a lot of historical information about the towns and cities you will visit in regular travel guides. However, travel guides only skim the surface of a world that is waiting to be discovered. What I could not find in travel guides— soul and spirit— I have tried to pour into my Guidebook, which is meant to help you to touch upon that often intangible and timeless quality of the Italian townscape and landscape.
Drawing on architectural theory, history, urbanism, garden design, philosophy, and psychology, and through a series of intellectual vignettes, psychological observations, and architectural sketches you will be gradually drawn closer to the intangible quality of a piazza here and a street there and, in the process, your very soul. Chapter-by-chapter you will—in your own way—grow to appreciate warmth, harmony and beauty, the sense of place, stillness and mindfulness that is so characteristic of the Italian townscape; qualities missing in many of our conceptually abstract, cold, soul alienating, and stress inducing cities.
You will find a lot of historical information about the towns and cities you will visit in regular travel guides. However, travel guides only skim the surface of a world that is waiting to be discovered. What I could not find in travel guides— soul and spirit— I have tried to pour into my Guidebook, which is meant to help you to touch upon that often intangible and timeless quality of the Italian townscape and landscape.
Drawing on architectural theory, history, urbanism, garden design, philosophy, and psychology, and through a series of intellectual vignettes, psychological observations, and architectural sketches you will be gradually drawn closer to the intangible quality of a piazza here and a street there and, in the process, your very soul. Chapter-by-chapter you will—in your own way—grow to appreciate warmth, harmony and beauty, the sense of place, stillness and mindfulness that is so characteristic of the Italian townscape; qualities missing in many of our conceptually abstract, cold, soul alienating, and stress inducing cities.
The language of the Guidebook is accessible and is meant to stimulate your own train of meditations.
Each day of the journey has its own readings and exercises. You are expected to read through them so that my talks and your experiences can settle in the deepest layers of the unconscious. Please bring your Guidebook with you along during all our outings and site visits.
You are also expected to do the occasional exercises. Don’t worry!!! They are easy, simple, and short. The goal of the exercises is to guide you through a thinking process so that you can reflect on your experiences more deeply. We will also provide you with a notebook and pen so you can compose your Discover Yourself Daily Journal.
The Journal is where you are expected to write down your own thoughts, reflections, feelings, sketches, and experiences. Many weeks, months, and years after the trip, your Journal will be of immense value and you will look back at it as an important point of transformation in your life. Places always overflow what can be said about them and what can be felt and you may capture or feel that which may have eluded others. It is on the pages of your notebook that you may pour your own thoughts and reflections.
Each day of the journey has its own readings and exercises. You are expected to read through them so that my talks and your experiences can settle in the deepest layers of the unconscious. Please bring your Guidebook with you along during all our outings and site visits.
You are also expected to do the occasional exercises. Don’t worry!!! They are easy, simple, and short. The goal of the exercises is to guide you through a thinking process so that you can reflect on your experiences more deeply. We will also provide you with a notebook and pen so you can compose your Discover Yourself Daily Journal.
The Journal is where you are expected to write down your own thoughts, reflections, feelings, sketches, and experiences. Many weeks, months, and years after the trip, your Journal will be of immense value and you will look back at it as an important point of transformation in your life. Places always overflow what can be said about them and what can be felt and you may capture or feel that which may have eluded others. It is on the pages of your notebook that you may pour your own thoughts and reflections.