Reminiscing about our SlowTrav friends

[Pauline]

As I was writing my newsletter to remind people about the Slow Europe forums, @Brigolante (Rebecca) started a thread on Facebook asking her SlowTrav friends to tag Facebook friends who they met through SlowTrav.

This is her post: "I just had a nice chat with an old SlowTrav friend, and I was thinking about how thankful I am to Pauline Kenny for creating that wonderful community that has lasted even beyond the lifespan of the site.

Wouldn't it be nice if we would each tag one person in the comments whom we met through SlowTrav as a fun surprise for Pauline? I'll start: "

Check out the post if you are on Facebook.

Link to Rebecca's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/brigolante

Link to the post:

https://www.facebook.com/brigolante/posts/1694593197227496

View: https://www.facebook.com/brigolante/posts/1694593197227496

 

[chiaro di Luna]

Just saw this. Haven't met up with any slow trav friends in 2 years now. Any GTG s planned?

 

[Pauline]

We don’t seem to be as good at GTGs as we were in the old days. I’ve managed to meetup with a few people on our Italy trips.

 

[Sharon J]

I believe I met Ann from Hawaii on Slow Trav, but it may have been WAY back in the days when AOL had a travel board, which closed. We actually met while we were both staying at Sant'Antonio. I have always planned our trips around information I've received from this board. What is the saying? Don't leave home without it? That's my advice from this wonderful board.

 

[Cameron]

I’ve met so many STers that I don’t know where to begin!

I just returned from Paris where I gtg with Parigi (every trip) and met ParisJo. I was on a Bluone Tour in Udine with Mindy, and of course, Marcello and Raffaella. I was at a gtg in California in 2016 where there were around 70, including their friends and significant others/spouses.

I’ll be in Sicily in September on a Shannon tour with another 3-4. In March 2015, I think there may have been around 18 of us in Paris for her birthday.

I met Ann in Hawaii one year.
I met Susan from Seattle in Paris a few years ago.
Two other STers were in Paris last year (we’d met before that, too).
One STer was in my area recently and we gtg.

I was on Kathy’s Cotswolds Experience last year and will be on two more of her tours in 2019.

I’m so grateful for all these wonderful friends!

 

[Ann]

Like Cameron, we've met many STers over the years:
First Pauline and Steve, as they were flying back through Honolulu from Kauai, I think.
Chris and Frank at an apt. we were renting in Paris -- they ended up renting it for 3 weeks. Also met up in Provence.
Kathy when she drove down from Knoxville to Chattanooga to my mother's -- she and Charley and Kelley drove down again later too. Met them in Provence with Chris.
Rebecca when we stayed at Brigolante.
Cameron when she visited Hawaii and came up to the North Shore to see us.
Sharon at Sant'Antonio near Montepulciano, through ST, not the AOL travel board.
Bob the Navigator and Susan near Montepulciano.
Marty aka Tessmar. We've shared apts. with Sherri and Marty in Montepulciano, Venice, and Ferrara, and visited them in CA.
Roz, whom we first met in Provence in 2014 after a lengthy correspondence. Spent time together in 2016 when they were staying in Vaison-la-Romaine and we were in Sablet, and have also visited them in CA.

So many good friends and such wonderful memories!

 

[Fletch]

I was late finding slowtrav but met Dave in Paris when we met him at Bastille and he showed us the small artisans in the cobbled alleys not far from there.
Then another day we travelled to Sancerre by public transport.
We had decided to write a report about a day trip there. We caught the train and a bus to visit a vineyard and climb the tower at the ? Wine museum. All organised by Dave who was a journalist in Paris.
The report was never written but we had a great day.

Through slowtrav I heard about the Grapehops tour of Venice. My husband daughter and I were on an early tour with Shannon and Kim. Palma and Nancy were also with us, and we have such wonderful memories of the happy time, we have a month there in October.
We did meet a New Zealander in Melbourne. I should remember his name. He won a prize for his trip report of a canal boat tour and a trip report of travel in the Dordogne in France. We were about to do both and it was a really great help.
I have always wanted to go to a GTG but haven’t managed it yet.

 

[Colo]

Back on Slow Travel there was a couple, Marissa and Keith, that were headed to Italy for 65 days and sought advice from the community. They did a blog that chronicled their trip and it was great. One of the better travel blogs I have read. Marissa is a chef and has a blog called Pinch and Swirl that I still follow.

Marissa and Keith also did an extended trip to Paris and blogged from there.
The Paris blog has some great recipes!

Her Blogs
65 days in Italy and Paris

We stayed in touch with Marissa and communicate often by email and through her blog.
We almost had a rendezvous set up, but it fell apart at the last minute.
One day we will hook up!

 

[Ann]

How could I have forgotten 2 dear ST friends. Jane was really my first good ST buddy -- she brought Ken and Casey out a couple of times to stay in a beach rental down from us, and we visited them during their year in Greve in Chianti. And Ruth, who helped inspire our love of Venice and certainly our knowledge of good Venetian restaurants, and whom we got to meet in Venice several years ago.

 

[Fletch]

This has brought memories back. We met Ruth when we were with Shannon and spent the week after the Grapehops tour in the appartment next to Ruth on the Grand Canal.
Loved Chow Venice the book they wrote on restaurants. We used it and left it for an Australian Family who moved in when Ruth left.
Now I remember a GTG we had in Venice in a lovely apartment near Peggy Guggenheim Museum but can’t recall the person who organised it. Someone might remember.

 

[Marissa]

Back on Slow Travel there was a couple, Marissa and Keith, that were headed to Italy for 65 days and sought advice from the community. They did a blog that chronicled their trip and it was great. One of the better travel blogs I have read. Marissa is a chef and has a blog called Pinch and Swirl that I still follow.

Marissa and Keith also did an extended trip to Paris and blogged from there.
The Paris blog has some great recipes!

Her Blogs
65 days in Italy and Paris

We stayed in touch with Marissa and communicate often by email and through her blog.
We almost had a rendezvous set up, but it fell apart at the last minute.
One day we will hook up!

Thank you for such kind words, Tom! I can't believe how long we've been virtual friends now! We absolutely must meet you and Janet in person one day - kindred spirits!

 

[Colo]

Welcome to Slow Europe!!
Marissa how did you even know I posted? Hope to see your fingers on more post in the future

 

[GailS]

Wow. Completely independent of Slow Europe/ST Marissa's blog is one I follow regularly. I had no idea she had been on ST. I made some of your recipes for a Memorial Day cookout - the Apple Crostini with Fig Jam and Pecorino in particular were a big hit.

 

[Colo]

Dinner at our house tonight is Marissa's Greek Farro Salad

The world is getting smaller every day!

 

[jan]

My first ST GTG was in Manhattan, around 2005 or 6. Judy Roberts (Tour Mama) and her husband were also in town. Locals were Marian, Kim, Shop Around and maybe 1 or 2 others I've forgotten.
Since then I have been to many other ST related meetings ranging from the Savannah Gathering to just having lunch with Wendy and Rob or Amy and Larry in Venice.
This spring, in Italy we met Yvonne from Austrailia for lunch, in Rome. And, finally, Jim Zurer in Bergamo.
ST friends are very special to me.

 

[Pauline]

We just lost one of our SlowTrav friends. I posted about Richard here.

 

[ellen]

The Slowtrav GTGs were fun, I met so many people over the years at the New York gatherings as well as one or two in Rome, organized by Wendy and Rob as I recall.

I recently reached out to Rebecca ( @Brigolante) because I remembered a trip report she wrote for Slowtrav more than a decade ago (probably closer to two decades ) and I've wanted to try the hotel she stayed in ever since. It's too bad we've lost that database, there was so much there.

 

[jan]

ellen--you were at that first gtg I went to in Manhattan!

 

[Mary Hitt]

,I have never been to a SlowTravel/Slow Europe GTG, but I have kept "in touch" or follow several people either through Facebook or their blogs - some of which no longer exist or have morphed into others (e.g., Valerie Schneider; Michelle Damiami; Letizia and Sandrac. I met Luca Logi in Florence when our daughter moved there for a year in 2013 to attend graduate school. I met Doug Scarola when he made a trip to Pittsburgh for a concert and we toured the Strip District.

Is anyone in touch with Palma ("Palma's Passions")? I loved following her blog, especially the year that she and Brad had an Italian foreign exchange high school student.

And I still think about Robert Rainey, a chiropracter by profession who lived in California. His posts were always so helpful. In May 2012 he was murdered in his Palms office early one morning. I think his is a cold case that has not yet been solved.

 

[chiaro di Luna]

Any plans for a Slow Europe/travel 2019 reunion?