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Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world
Americas+1 212 318 2000
EMEA+44 20 7330 7500
Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000
One great benefit of retracing the path of travelers past is finding places that are off the tourist circuit of the present.
“I move beneath a tempest of gold,” wrote Edith Templeton in Ravenna. “I pass from rains of gold and cascades of gold, into torrents of gold.”
Illustration by Holly Warburton
The very best journeys involve traveling not only through space but also through time. You encounter places and objects that are hundreds or even thousands of years old and find yourself imagining what kind of society would have made them. And yet, to be alive in 2025 is to be overwhelmed by the pressures of the present and the promises and perils of the future—which, in a zero-sum way, invariably means neglecting the richness of the past, home to 93% of all the humans who’ve ever lived.
This is where books come in. I’ve found that one way to flesh out the passage of time, to make it more immediate and meaningful, is to do a kind of skip-step. Instead of looking at the past through the eyes of today, I try looking through the eyes of someone who lived long before me. Fortunately, travel writing has a long and illustrious history, which means there’s no shortage of inspiration.
