THE MIRAGE
KATIA'S TRAVELS
A life spent between Italy, Germany and Ireland, a love for the latter and for every place where you can see the sea THE MIRAGE is the blog where Katia talks about herself, and today we have the pleasure of interviewing her.
Benvenuta su Easy Travel Hosting! Laureata in Storia dell'arte, Personal Travel Agent per Racconti di Viaggi, autrice del blog "Il Miraggio". Ci potresti parlare un pò di te e di come nasce il tuo sito?
I have always had a passion for art and history and this is how after a professional high school diploma I decided to enroll at university, choosing the course in Cultural Heritage where I gave vent to my personal interests.
This influenced my way of travelling: I always looked for everything that told the story of the place I was visiting. Museums, events or simply outdoor itineraries that would take me to the streets of the neighborhoods where history has passed.
My travel blog was born a bit by chance and I smile at the first reason why I opened it: I was looking for a way to keep myself practicing writing! For me it has always been a huge obstacle but during my Erasmus year in Germany, where written reports are the daily bread during university, I began to appreciate and love writing.
I thought of a travel blog because it was a way to keep a diary of my travels, my impressions and what I saw. On the other hand, I realized how much Germans loved Italy, as did the many foreigners I met during my Erasmus.
But speaking to them, the Italian stereotypes were always the same: Milan for fashion, Rome for archaeology, Venice and Florence for art in general, Naples and Sicily for the sea.
Why not tell everything except what people expect?
Abbiamo letto che non ti piace il turismo di massa e che l'Italia si trova con poche mete conosciute all'estero e sempre sovraffollate, mentre altre "perle" sono lasciate nell'abbandono. Cosa pensi si possa fare per far riscoprire un Italia diversa e ribilanciare i fattori in campo?
I think the first thing is to talk about it! Several people have told me that they have discovered places or museums by reading my blog. For me 3 things are important to be able to do this:
- It is important to create strong collaborations with local tourist-cultural institutions and journalists and bloggers: often people do not know the area enough and do not know of the existence of these historical-cultural pearls.
- Networking between public institutions but also between private individuals and between private individuals and public institutions. In my interviews for the column "Italy that will restart" the lack of networking among local promoters was often highlighted. If we get together (I'm talking especially about small businesses), it's easier to make ourselves known, create interesting projects and distribute them across the territory. And people are then encouraged to visit that particular destination.
- Sometimes it is the institutions themselves that do not make themselves known. It happened to me with a museum in Verona, discovered by chance. I studied for two years in the capital of Verona and I have never seen a road sign leading to this museum, an advertisement both offline and online, the entrance was anonymous (I must have passed by it who knows how many times but I never noticed the existence of the museum). Yet this museum is in the historic center and contains important collections of various kinds.
Germany and Dublin have a very deep and important connection for you. Would you like to explain why?
I admit it: with Germany it wasn't love at first sight. And to think that at school I turned in my essays blank and was subscribed to an endless series of unclassifiable papers that took me to the September exams on time. Then came love at first sight for this language when I decided to become an au pair in Kassel.
I found German to be an interesting language and have been traveling through Germany ever since.
This country also offers a lot of art and history and the Germans have a long tradition of this. The greatest archaeologists and art historians come from the German-speaking area: it was they who "invented" art, archeology and history as a science to be analyzed and studied between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Then I have a weakness for twentieth-century German history and every opportunity is a good one to go on a rediscovery of the places where the events happened.
I arrived in Ireland by pure chance: I was planning to leave for London to study English and suddenly I found myself in Dublin working as an au pair. And I left my heart there because it was among the most beautiful periods of my life.
What do I still carry with me now after 20 years? The philosophy of the Irish: there is no rush in doing things, their human warmth, their lightness in living. I still dream of the Irish landscape now. I have never seen the clouds move so fast, I admired the biggest moon of my life and the morning I left Dublin forever I admired 5 rainbows while crossing the River Liffey in a taxi.
What do you do to make your travels greener?
I don't have a car because I live in a small city where getting around on foot or by public transport is quite easy. My jobs have always been in the historic center and I could reach them in half an hour. The same thing happened abroad: the cities where I lived offered good transport services that never made me feel sorry for not having a car.
So my trips are organized primarily based on how much I can travel by public transport: trains and buses once on site (or by train to reach nearby places). For me, it is very important to try to pollute as little as possible: all the trips I talk about on my blog were done by public transport. I can count the ones done by car on one hand but only one wasn't feasible without a car!
As I often visit smaller places, it is not always easy to reach them: I often had to cancel or change my destination because it was impossible to get there without a car.
And this is a real shame: it would be really nice to be able to move the institutions on the one hand and raise people's awareness on the other to strengthen rail connections and increase public buses. Especially in central and southern Italy.
As you know, Easy Travel Hosting uses renewable and eco-sustainable energy to power its servers. Furthermore, a tree is planted for each new hosting, actively helping reforestation and the absorption of CO2. What do you think of this project and in general, do you think it is important to seek a more sustainable lifestyle?
Even if it's not easy, I always try to do something towards a more sustainable life. But honestly I had never thought about a greener web and the topic is new to me.
Now that the internet is an integral part of our lives (especially with the ongoing pandemic), it is important to think about its conscious use. As soon as I discovered the Easy Travel Hosting projects and the use of renewable and eco-sustainable energy, I thought it would be a new step towards greater environmental sustainability.
By now my blog has become an integral part of me: if on the one hand I try to pollute less during my travels, why not do it afterwards when I talk about them?
Easy Travel Hosting thanks Katia very much for taking part in our interview.
If you want to find out more, you can follow her on her website by clicking here.
And on social media too!
Easy Travel Hosting it is 100% ecological Hosting tailor-made for travelers by travellers.
Do you want to tell us your story? Contact us HERE.