Unique foods.
Lush vegetation.
Mysterious antiquities.
Picturesque views.
Exhilarating adventures.
Fascinating people.
More stamps in your passport.
Foreign travel is exciting. Exhilarating even. It's a great bonding experience for friends or family traveling together. I have only been able to get to a couple of foreign locales so far. My kids, however, have been to Haiti, Namibia, Ecuador, Rwanda, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Portugal, Austria, Germany... I can't even remember all the places. Our son and daughter-in-law even have a blog just to chronicle their travels while they are living abroad for a few years. I enjoy living vicariously through them.
Since I don't get the opportunity to personally visit all the places I would eventually like to see, hear, smell, touch and taste, I often enjoy reading books or blogs that take me there. For us women, the Sisterchicks books are great for fun and inspirational stories involving virtual travel. After reading Sisterchicks in Gondolas I knew I wanted to gaze upon the canals of Venice myself and taste creamy gelato served at an outdoor cafe there some day. Recently I devoured, not gelato, but another book that has me yearning to visit Italy: The Girl in the Glass by Susan Meissner.
The descriptions of Florence, Italy and many of the unparalleled Renaissance works of art are enchanting and intriguing.
I really want to stand and gaze at the statues and paintings, sniff the earthy scent of Italian coffee, taste melt-in-your-mouth porcini mushrooms, and stroll down ancient streets.
For now, I will content myself with virtual travel through blogs and books. Here's a review of The Girl in the Glass by Susan Meissner in case you want to indulge in some virtual travel yourself!
This lilting book colors Florence, Italy with a magical ambiance. Stories of three different women are woven together as an illustration of fatherly neglect, family heartbreak and ultimate healing. 16th century Nora Orsini of the famed Medici family tells her story in the midst of present-day Florence native Sofia's story. They have parallel experiences and both find solace in art and faith. Both of those women speak into the life of main character Meg, an American woman who grapples with family issues, men issues and work issues. As a travel book editor, she meets Lorenzo and Renata, writers from Florence, and ends up traveling to their city and staying with their neighbor and aspiring author, the aforementioned Sofia. Sofia introduces Meg to both Nora and the art-filled city of Florence where they jointly seek healing for past heartaches. Meg needs to figure out how to love her promise-breaking father, deal with her feelings toward her mother's boyfriend, and basically learn to make her own decisions about life and love.
The writing is lovely; infusing humor, poignancy and wonder into a story featuring disappointment, confusion and ultimate healing. "Imagine that you've been empowered to believe Renaissance isn't just a word; it's the essence of rebirth; it's what happens when you dare to believe what is isn't what it has to be; it can be remade." And this is the essence of The Girl in the Glass: Nora, Sofia and Meg all learn what it means to say that "Your life is what you make of it, not what happens to you." An enchanting read.
I received this book free from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers in exchange for my honest review. Even though the book was free, I promise that I woulda told you if I didn't like it!
