Thursday Traveler: Jessica Spiegel of WhyGo Italy

Every Thursday, A Dangerous Business will be shining the spotlight on a world nomad, travel blogger, armchair adventurer, or just someone really cool in the travel world. This week, the traveler is Jessica Spiegel of WhyGo Italy travel guide. Jessica is a Portland-based travel writer with BootsnAll Travel Network, where she’s the resident Italophile (seriously, doesn’t every travel company have one?). She’s an avid fan of soccer, gelato, impractical shoes, and Twitter (you’ll find her there as @italylogue).

1. How do you define the word “traveler,” and why would you consider yourself one?

As far as I’m concerned, a traveler is someone who gets outside their day-to-day surroundings by choice. That includes everything from exploring a neighborhood of your own city you’re not as familiar with (the way a non-resident might) to hopping on a cheap flight to the other side of the planet. Being a traveler is a way of looking at what’s around you, no matter where you are.

2. What has been your favorite travel experience thus far?

One of the things I always want when I travel is to feel like a regular — which is tough to do when you’re only in one place for a few days. Going to the same cafe for breakfast three days in a row, then, has usually passed for being a regular in my book. A few years ago I rented an apartment in Milan for six weeks, and after a couple weeks of going to the same bar for coffee nearly every day, the owners would just start my order as soon as I walked in. The first time that happened I almost cried from joy.

3. How about your proudest travel moment?

During my semester studying in England, I spent some time with my French cousins in Paris. One afternoon I was supposed to meet my cousin at the restaurant she owned, navigating my way across the city by myself — something I hadn’t to that point done. I got seriously turned around upon exiting the Metro station, but kept going and eventually found my way (by going into the next Metro station I saw and getting back on track!). From that point on, my attitude has always been, “There’s no such thing as lost. It just might take a little longer to get there from here.”

4. Have you had any travel mishaps or bad experiences? If so, have these influenced how you view the place where they happened? Would you go back?

I have yet to have a travel mishap so bad I wouldn’t return to the place. So far, I’ve always been willing to give places second (and third) chances. And really, I’ve been a very lucky traveler in general — probably the worst thing was when a bank machine in Milan ate my bank card at the start of a month-long trip in Italy. My husband wasn’t traveling with me, so he was at home and able to wire me money — but that was a pretty stressful couple of days, counting every euro coin to make it last. But would I go back to Milan? I have, happily, several times since!

5. Name one thing you can’t travel without.

My little sound machine. I have trouble sleeping in unfamiliar places — all the nighttimes noises unnerve me — so I always carry a portable white noise machine that plays ocean or rain sounds.

6. Name one thing you wish you COULD travel without.

Probably the same sound machine! I wish I was a better sleeper in general and therefore had no need for it.

7. What do you think has been the biggest thing you’ve learned while traveling (about yourself, a destination, a culture, travel itself)?

I’ve learned so much from traveling, it’s hard to narrow it down… Italy teaches me to embrace the chaos. New Orleans teaches me to slow down. Scotland teaches me colder climates often produce warm people. Portland, my own city, regularly reminds me that it never hurts to bring sunglasses and an umbrella.

Perhaps the thing that travel has taught me that has impacted my life in the biggest way is how valuable it is to be social and open. I have friendly conversations and make friends much more easily than I used to before I started traveling on my own, when that ability is the difference between yet another lonely train ride and a chat with a potentially fascinating seatmate.

8. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Oh, Italy — without question. I’m still working on eventually moving there (slowly), and besides the expected stuff about how much I love the food and history and views and people, it’s also because (as I mentioned above) Italy helps my usual Type-A self calm down a bit and recognize that when Plan A doesn’t work out, there’s pretty much always another way to do things. If there’s no Plan B, then maybe it wasn’t that critical a task in the first place.

9. Name one place you’d like to see or one experience you’d like to have before you die.

Mont Saint-Michel in France. I’ve been obsessing about it since my freshman year of college, so we’re talking about more than 20 years now, when I saw the movie “Mindwalk,” which takes place almost entirely on Mont Saint-Michel. And I’ve still never been there. It’s kind of killing me inside.

10. If there was one thing you wish somebody would have told you before you started traveling, what would it be?

I suppose “relax, it’ll all work out” would have saved me from quite a bit of consternation over the years, but I probably wouldn’t have listened (or believed them) — and, in the end, travel’s been teaching me that same thing. It would’ve been awkward if someone had spoiled what travel had in store for a lesson plan.

Visit Jessica’s Site: WhyGo Italy
Follow Jessica on Twitter: @italylogue

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Are you a travel blogger who has something to say on these topics? Do you know of somebody really interesting in the travel universe that you’d like to see interviewed? Speak up! The Thursday Traveler needs some interview subjects.

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