My Thoughts on Slow Food, Slow Travel
More and more we are hearing and learning about slow food. And the slow food movement has led to the concept of slow travel. For some, these buzz words may not mean much, but they actually mean something to me.
The lifestyle and culture of both Italy and France lends itself very well to the more laid back travel experience, eating and moving around at a more relaxed pace allowing you to savor every last bit of a meal, a museum or a destination. It’s one of the many reasons I adore these two countries.
Slow Food and Slow Travel are exactly the opposite of fast-food and fast travel.
While I could spend hours attempting to explain the definitions and the movement itself and how it started, honestly I think that you would be able to learn and understand more about it directly from the source. If you’re really interested in learning more, read Slow Food Nation, which is written by the President of the Slow Food Organization, Carlo Petrini.
Instead, I’d rather spend a few minutes explaining to you, from my point of view, what they mean to me and how it translates into my work. I’d much rather speak to you from the heart.
But first, let me tell you a funny, yet scary, story that really resonated with me.
A few years back, I read Dario Castagno’s popular memoir called Too Much Tuscan Sun (a great read). In it, he reveals a rather embarrassing story about a tour that he was leading with some Americans in Siena, Italy. During the part of his tour where he would normally bring his clients to a family owned trattoria that prides itself on preparing time-honored recipes using local foods for lunch, he was met with a chilly response when he announced these plans. The clients responded that they had come all that way to Italy to enjoy real Italian food, and would rather pass on Dario’s personal recommendation in favor of a Pizza Hut or Olive Garden.
I have no words. Could you imagine how Dario must have felt? How insulting!
Unfortunately, I think stories of this kind play out much more often than is written about. Not only are Pizza Hut and Olive Garden not my idea of real Italian food in the U.S., but it certainly isn’t my idea of authentic Italian food in Italy.
And why would I want to experience the same thing when I travel that I do day in and day out at home?
Isn’t the point of travel to understand and experience the local culture and immerse yourself in something different?
Personally, I think it a shame that McDonald’s has set up shop in both of these countries. There are far better, healthier and more interesting options for sightseers on the go who don’t wish to take the time to savor a full meal for every lunch and dinner. In Italy things like lampreddoto, porchetta and pizza al taglio all come to mind. In France, there are crêpes, falafel, sandwiches or even just a baguette and cheese. Or better yet, why not pick up some fresh food at a local market and enjoy a picnic in a lovely garden or park?
One certainly doesn’t need to resort to finding a McDonald’s or god forbid an Olive Garden!
cranberry beans at a local food market
What Slow Food doesn’t mean to me
- Slow Food doesn’t mean being a pretentious food snob
- Slow Food doesn’t mean ever eating something that you know isn’t good, clean, fair and sustainable
- Slow Food doesn’t mean visiting fast-food joints on vacation, no matter how pressed for time you are
- Slow Food doesn’t mean obsessing over every bite and being anal about having to find a slow food
- Slow Food doesn’t mean always having to splurge on expensive meals
What Slow Food does mean to me
- Slow Food means seeking out locally-owned establishments who pride themselves on using fresh, local ingredients
- Slow Food means taking the time to learn about the ingredients, where they came from, how they are typically used and prepared
- Slow Food means cooking and eating what’s in season
- Slow Food means spending a bit more on good quality food, even when it means the portions may be smaller, because the flavor of the food will make up for it
- Slow Food means allowing yourself the pleasure of enjoying a leisurely meal and knowing that what you put in your mouth is good for you and is benefiting everyone who touched it – from the farmer to the chef to you.
What Slow Travel doesn’t mean to me
- Slow Travel doesn’t involve getting a list of as many places as possible and trying to figure out how you can check them all off in record time on your trip
- Slow Travel doesn’t mean seeing seven different cities on a week-long vacation
- Slow Travel doesn’t mean spending an hour on a gondola and calling it “seeing Venice” or taking a trip up the Eiffel Tower and saying you experienced Paris.
- Slow Travel doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use a high-speed train to get from place to place. Getting to your destination quickly leaves you more time to experience it.
- Slow Travel doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t visit a fast-paced city
What Slow Travel does mean to me
- Slow Travel means enjoying and savoring every experience and every moment
- Slow Travel means taking the time to chat with proprietors and vendors about their establishments
- Slow Travel means immersing yourself in the local culture and chatting up the natives to learn more about their lifestyle
- Slow Travel means taking time to stray from your itinerary if an opportunity presents itself. It means living in the moment.
- Slow Travel means veering off-the-beaten-path and perhaps opting to stay in an agriturismo in the countryside as opposed to a chain hotel in the city.
- Slow Travel means doing less, or perhaps doing nothing at all.
If the idea of slow food and slow travel in Italy and France resonates with you, you may be interested in:
- A selection of food and wine excursions led by a local.
- A slow boat rowing lesson and tour in Venice.
- A custom designed foodie adventure highlighting slow food artisans.
- A complete custom travel itinerary to Italy or France with a focus on slow travel priniciples.
What does Slow Food and Slow Travel mean to you?
Friends & Supporters
October 18th, 2011
I absolutely agree that slow travel is the best, but sadly most people are lucky if they even get to travel period, so slow travel is quite a luxury!
Very true Andi. Change in mindset is always slow to happen, but hope I can help in the education
October 18th, 2011
Hi Robin,
Your article on Slow Food/Slow Travel I think was one of the best you’ve written! We definitely think alike along the idea of ‘slow’, and you’re absolutely correct in that Italy and France are perfect for this kind of traveler. But! Now you’ve mentioned another book that I’ll have to get (Too Much Tuscan Sun), and I gotta tell ya, there’s nothing like an ice-cold coke from McDonald’s (with ice!!!) on a sweltering day in Rome. So the fast food places don’t bother me too much. Congrats on a great article. You’re doing a wonderful job, friend!
Thank you Vicki! You will love Dario’s book. Very entertaining. And I don’t drink soda, but I have been known to pop into a Micky D’s for a potty break
October 18th, 2011
Hi Robin,
Great post. I was an editor at Food Arts Magazine in New York when Slow Food first launched. It’s been gratifying to watch their growth and success. Now that I live in Provence, I see the Slow Food philosophy in practice every day. The Provencal people love to grow food, talk about food, prepare food, share food. I often return home to find something that a friend or neighbor has grown, harvested, cooked or baked and kindly left for me to enjoy. Change happens slowly here, particularly with regards to food. And I’m thankful for it.
Best Wishes!
Julie
Thanks for your thoughts Julie. I would love the opportunity to have you show me all of the wonderful food your area has to offer on my next visit. Slowly, of course
October 18th, 2011
As always compilments go out to you for a informative and well written blog post. I could not agree with you more. My favorite line Slow Travel means taking time to stray from your itinerary if an opportunity presents itself. It means living in the moment.
Trying to live this concept daily.
Kudos to you!
Michelle
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, Michelle. I’m glad you try to live this daily. I think we should get together soon for a nice slow food meal! With wine of course
October 18th, 2011
Slow travel is the way to go when you have children as well. We try to allow as much time in our itinerary when we’re abroad – mostly because the greatest expense is the 4 airline tickets overseas. On our last trip with the children we spent a month slowly making our way between France & Italy, visiting friends along the way, staying in small inns, meeting people, shopping at the village markets, and renting a villa. Having your own car there is a huge help in doing things at your family’s pace. It’s such a wonderful experience to really feel and breathe and taste a place. (I’m already planning the next month-long European road trip!) Ciao!
Great point about the kids and having a car, Lynn. I can’t imagine shuttling kids around to a different place every day or so. Looks like you are really traveling the slow way – good for you!
October 18th, 2011
I totally agree. Have always loved slow food and now find I’d rather take my time and see just a few things in a city rather than having to try to do everything. On a recent visit to the Edinburgh Festival (admittedly only a short train ride from my home town outside Glasgow) my husband and I booked for one quality show and spent the rest of the day soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying a quiet drink before the show.
And I bet you had a much better time than if you were running around crazy the whole time, Alison. Relaxing is totally underrated!
October 18th, 2011
My husband and I are taking our 2 year old daughter to France and Italy for the month of January. We have a loose itinerary of things to maybe see and places to go but for the most part we are the “do what we feel like doing at the time” people when we travel. Our vacations are planned around good food and good wine. Nathan is a chef and I work in the wine industy in WA state. Our nightmare is fast food and not taking the time to enjoy experiences in life and travel. Our daughter is following in our footsteps
There is always time for a good, simple meal. Thanks for the great article!
Thank you for your comments Leslie! It sure sounds like we have a lot in common
Enjoy your upcoming vacation.
October 18th, 2011
Completely agree on the slow travel but can’t say I am a big fan of slow food or fast food!
Glad to hear you’re a slow traveler Jeremy! I hope you are at least a fan of food in general.
October 19th, 2011
Great article Robin!
I’m a chef and have studied food anthropology some as well, and Slow Food movements are facinating and I believe will help bring about a welcome cultural shift, in at least parts of the US.
As a traveller, I love nothing more than to experience a city or town “like a local”, and most of that experiencing involves food!
I’ll relate a funny experience from my last trip to Europe this summer. We had taken an all-day ferry from Dubrovnik to Bari, Italy, then had train passes for an overnight train to Milan, then on to Zurich. We decided to walk from the port in Bari to the train station, which was unfortunate because it ended up being 3 km or so. (This also happens to be the point in our trip that I decided to try to convert to a carry-on only traveller, as I’m dragging my suitcase and backpack through streets of Bari)
Anyway, we landed in Bari at sunset (gorgeous!) and had a little time to find the train station and get ready to depart. But because the walk was longer than we expected, we only had about 30 minutes to grab dinner before boarding the train for overnight.
Unfortunately, the only option that was close to the station and open was a McDonalds! I counted this a great tragedy that I was in Italy and was forced to eat at McDs….a part of my foodie soul died.
However, the silver is that we did spend a couple of hours walking the streets of Bari! I wish we had had more time to explore, and I wish I had been able to get real Italian food, but this made for a funny story.
In the end, I was grateful that I did get food before boarding the train, because there was not a dining car or cafe car on our train and we had 8 hours until Milan.
The hubs and I are planning an anniversary trip to France this January, and I would be perfectly content to just stay in Paris and really experience the city slowly, but he is wanting to go to at least one other location…I’ll keep you posted on where we decide!
Thanks so much for sharing your story, Anne Marie. I’m sure it was tough for you to admit your McD’s visit, but that is exactly why I said that for me, part of slow food is realizing sometimes you have no choice, and that you shouldn’t beat yourself up over it if you have to eat fast-food. It’s about having the sense to choose slow food when you have that option! Enjoy your anniversary trip. Champagne or Loire Valley might be a nice addition to Paris.
October 19th, 2011
Lovely article. Like you indicated, I think that while keeping the Slow Food and Travel philosophy in mind, you do have to give yourself grace and allow yourself to veer off-course a little, even if it means popping into a fast-food joint if that’s your only option (and hey, McDo’s are always handy for a bathroom break). On my recent trip to Rome I was disappointed when places on my ‘approved’ list were closed or not easily accessible from wherever we happened to be at mealtimes, because I’d put a good deal of pressure on myself to eat the ‘right’ things at the ‘right’ places. I had several fantastic culinary experiences there, and was so, so glad I’d done my research, but I also promised myself to try and chill out about the whole thing and just enjoy whatever was available.
Well put Becky! For some who follow both movements religiously – it may have been a big issue. But to me, it’s about making the slow choice when you can, but NOT beating yourself up or stressing out when you can’t. Glad you followed that mantra and enjoyed Rome!
October 20th, 2011
For me slow travel is a luxury and for slow food it would be Pizza my most favorite.
October 20th, 2011
When I think of slow food and slow travel, I think more time to savour the delicious authentic foods.
It makes me sad to hear when people request to go to Olive Garden instead of a family owned Italian Trattoria that at least has pride and can all itself AUTHENTIC.
Anthony Bourdain did a show questioning where the idea of Italian-American food came from and why so many think it is authentic Italian.
Would you even call Olive Garden’s food Italian? I would consider it more to be a mutant version of American with a lot of creamy sauce (which is actually hard to find in Italy – they opt for more olive oil based sauces).
I will have to check out that book!
The Wanderfull Traveler
October 20th, 2011
I would have to say that I am in the middle of everything but also swing to both sides at times. I really like to do my fair share of sightseeing when I go somewhere but everything is planned and I take my time. I don’t try and do everything there is to do even when I know I will only be in that city for a few days. I believe it is better to relax and see what you can see rather than be in a mad frenzy. I believe if you have a well thought out plan of what you would like to do each day there is no reason to rush. We always enjoy ourselves and have a nice lunch when out. As far as slow food I am not really sure I have a good point of view about that. I sometimes like to spend a good amount of time enjoying a meal but not at lunch. I don’t want to eat and run at lunch but I also don’t want to spend 2 hours for lunch. As far as Italian food goes with me it is a hit and miss because there is so many different ways to make the same thing that i find it hard for the food to be consistent. It doesn’t help matters that in my town we have 2 very good authentic Italian restaurants very near so everything I eat in Italy gets compared to here. So to me slow travel is find but I plan to not miss anything I really want to see but still at a relaxing pace.
Thanks for your thoughts Mark. Sounds like you have a good philosophy about both
October 21st, 2011
AMEN!!!
October 24th, 2011
I just learnt about slow food and slow . Not only novel it was exciting to read the comments. Thanks
October 24th, 2011
Hey Robin (a girl after my own heart, you are). One of the reasons I have a three night minimum in my B&B in Italy is because that’s the minimum, the absolute minimum that a person needs to even BEGIN to become acquainted with our area. I do pretty much everything slow these days, because in order to be conscious of what I do, I need to be able to focus, and focus takes time. Travel is the same. You cannot rush through and hope to remember or savor or even remotely enjoy. What’s the point if all you can remember is pulling your luggage off of trains and schlepping to yet another hotel?
Savor. Relax. Immerse. Remember the small things. These are the benefits of slow.
xoxoxoxo
Well said Diana! Thank goodness for people like you. You’re one of my favorite people in Italy
xo
March 29th, 2012
Oh we just saw a sign outside a local restaurant in Vietnam today that said Slow Food for Slow Travel. We wondered what that meant but you’ve cleared that right up!! Totally agree with all of the above. Think we’ll have lunch there tomorrow!!
Great! I hope it’s delicious
Tracey – Life Changing Year recently posted..Cooking Class at Baan Thai Cooking School in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
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