The Human Need to Travel 2011
For its Brand Report 2011 Kuoni asked the fourth Getaway Council to comment on historic pictures of a journey to Italy. The participants have been kept anonymous since they are representatives of what all travellers share. Below is all we need to knowabout them.
THE ENGINEER
A Hamburg-based engineer who sees the world through a technical lens. He has managed to achieve an enviable balance in his life between leisure and work. Almost half the year is spent travelling in pursuit of his passion for sports: amateur ski races in the Swiss Alps during the winter, two-wheeled tests of courage on the mountain biking trails of Liguria in the summer.
THE GOURMET
After many years of roving far and wide, this French-born gastronome opted to settle in Brittany because it offered the best conditions for his wine cellar. He headed a wind ensemble for Renaissance music but also worked as a cook on sailing vessels off the coast of Africa and in other jobs that brought him in contact with exotic food markets around the globe.
THE DANCER
An attractive physiotherapist with a clearly evident hippie past and ready advice for any situation. All manner of people put their trust in her expertise. But her scintillating presence also lights up the Munich nightlife. Globally dispersed family members and gurus determine the course of her travels, from India to Israel to Australia.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER
A German who studied literature but works as a photographer specialising in corporate communications. On the side, he restored an old factory in the provinces, comprised of a half-timbered house from the sixteenth century and a former industrial building. He maintains his studio on the premises and also regularly opens up its doors for evenings of music, primarily devoted to the Baroque period.
THE AUTHOR
An author of travel guides who lives in Germany. She is a passionate, discerning traveller with a keen curiosity about the culinary and literary traditions of foreign lands. These interests also feature prominently in her travel books. Besides writing, she whips up exquisite concoctions for guests at her small historic hotel, which has led her to curb her globetrotting ways and stay in one place for a change.
THE BOAT BUILDER
The Dutchman has pursued his craft as a boat builder and expert on historic sailing vessels in many ports of call around the world – from California to the Philippines. A Tai Chi instructor, he dedicates more time to meditative movement than to the restoration of his almost 100-year-old two-masted freight sailer, one of the last of its kind, on the northern Adriatic coast.
THE TRAVELLER
The tall, Amsterdam-born lady is as charismatic as she is flamboyant. Her background in the fashion world is obvious. But she was also a muse to avant-garde artists. Instead of an address, her calling card bears the statement: travelling. That certainly fits the bill as she spends the winter months each year in India or Mexico, the summers in Italy and Turkey.
THE SCULPTOR
A Belgian-born artist who splits her time between the city of Venice and an island in the surrounding lagoon. She works as a designer and deviser of kinetic objects with a ludic character. She speaks many languages, typically jumbled together in the same sentence. She relates to the world as an aesthete and, with her outgoing nature, is at the centre of a large circle of friends.
THE COUNTESS
In Munich, the Countess is a well-known socialite of somewhat eccentric appearance. Her trousers, dresses and blouses look as though they were improvised from the curtains of Romanian gypsies. Her daily existence is similarly colourful. She runs a shop that looks like it comes straight from a child’s dream world, where most of the old-fashioned sweets, novelty items and miniature toys cost less than 50 cents.
THE HISTORIAN
The USA-born architectural historian lives with her family in Zurich. She describes herself as a mixture of punk and librarian. That pretty well sums it up, as she works professionally with language and books and, with her occasional incendiary insights, regularly confounds all those who think they can count on her serious and reserved appearance.
THE PADRONE
A typical Italian figure of respect, as well as a lifelong kid at heart, amateur boxer and patriarch of one of Venice’s most outstanding restaurants. Among the kitchen staff, he’s known as a “culinary Taliban” owing to his unquestionably radical views on raw materials and their handling. He spent his childhood in a situation that comes very close to our photo album – in terms of personal history as well as geography.
THE COLLECTOR
Born into an old publishing family, this Swiss bibliophile is an authority on printed texts and images. An impassioned collector of photographic volumes and art books, his sprawling private library approaches immeasurable proportions. With his vast knowledge, he has an exceedingly well-trained eye and assesses photographs with greater subtlety than anyone else.