{"id":3654,"date":"2017-09-24T17:27:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-24T16:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/?p=3654"},"modified":"2026-02-08T10:12:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T09:12:56","slug":"tick-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/?p=3654","title":{"rendered":"Tick the box"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In 2005 I bought a travel magazine (ABTA Travelspirit) while I was waiting for my flight. I found this article by Pat Riddell so enlightening \u00a0I decided to keep it and recently I found it again … I tried to find it online to share it, but I couldn’t find it, so I decided to type it for you: happy reading!<\/em><\/p>\n

Is sightseeing something we want to do? Or do we do it because we feel we ought to, asks Pat Riddel?\u00a0<\/strong>
\nIt was while queueing among the masses to see Michelangelo\u2019s Sistine Chapel at the Vatican that it occured to me . People weren\u2019t really here to appreciate the Renaissance artist\u2019s greatest work, they were here to tick off one of Rome\u2019s sights from their list<\/strong>. Next up: St Peter\u2019s Basilica, the Colosseum and the Pantheon. \u2028Had it just become a meaningless exercise? Wouldn\u2019t they rather spend their time lazing in bed, drinking cappuccinos, buying designer clothes and living la dolce vita ? Does anyone actually appreciate the sights they travel miles to see? Or is it a case of ticking it off the list, telling your friends and planning the next one \u2013 Taj Mahal, Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower…
\nDo we go and see things simply because we think we should? Open the guidebook, identify the top 10 things to see, join the queues and, often, remain marginally unimpressed. Spending four days shopping in New York is as equally valid as devouring everything the Museum of Modern Art has to offer. The problem is you feel compelled to see everything you think you should see and leave no time to really discover the place<\/strong>. The people who say, \u201cyou really must see such-and-such\u201d are often repeating the mantra that\u2019s been drummed into them \u2013 it\u2019s one of the tallest building in the world, it\u2019s the greatest architecture ever seen, it\u2019s a masterpiece, it\u2019s culturally and historically significant, it\u2019s a \u201cmust see\u201d…<\/p>\n

Well, maybe I\u2019m being a little cynical. Why not consider finding the sights that mean something to you<\/strong>, rather than going along with the \u201creceived wisdom\u201d. For everyone who just sees a pile of rubble there\u2019s someone who sees an amazing ruin, a great ancient civilisation. For those who see \u201cjust another painting my two-year-old could\u2019ve done\u201d, someone will see one of the most important works of the 20th century.\u2028 Having left Rome, we met a guy in Florence who tought the Pantheon was the most amazing thing the ancient city had to offer. Personally, I thought it was pretty impressive, but he, as an engineer, was astounded by the geometry of a perfect sphere in a building nearly 2000 years old.
\nI\u2019ve gazed in awe at the sun setting \u2013 and then rising again the next day \u2013 at Uluru (Ayers Rock) while my companion looked on impassively. This, just weeks after I declared the Sydney Opera House as being \u201cmore impressive on the telly\u201d while the same companion was dumbstruck by its sails set against the backdrop of Sydney Harbour (admittedly, I have changed my mind about this since).
\nSightseeing can be arduos , it can be mind-numbingly boring \u2013 we should accept that and move on. But it can also be inspiring and moving. The only problem is: you don\u2019t always know what will inspire and move you. Which means you end up joining the queue with everyone else, regardless<\/strong>.\u2028 The eternal dilemma is whether you skip the crowds, miss whatever \u201csight it is and do what you really want to do, living in the knowledge that you missed something that might have blown your mind. Peraphs it depends whether you will return \u2013 a weekend in Barcelona or Amsterdam will never be enough and the chances are, given the distance, you will return. Whereas the likelihood of returning to Auckland or Buenos Aires are remote \u2013 in which case you should make the effort. Alternatively is it a careful balancing act? Learning how to plan a day of sightseeing without wearing yourself out by the evening, otherwise you miss out discovering the restaurants, the nightlife and the people. Or maybe we should just blame the guidebooks and their top 10s<\/strong> and relentless detail of sights that are often not worth the time or effort. That\u2019s it, then \u2013 let\u2019s go burn some books!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2005 I bought a travel magazine (ABTA Travelspirit) while I was waiting for my flight. I found this article by Pat Riddell so enlightening \u00a0I decided to keep it and recently I found it again … I tried to find it online to share it, but I couldn’t find it, so I decided to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-time-reflect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3654"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4309,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3654\/revisions\/4309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}