Julian Worker Travel – A few ideas for your next trip in every direction

Travel is an amazing privilege, you probably realise that now you’ve been deprived of it. I know I do. We should never take it for granted. I travel because my own father always said he would travel after he’d retired, but he never got the chance because he died from cancer when he was 49. I travel for him when I go to places as well as for myself.

Julian’s Journeys is a collection of 34 travel stories. These stories are part memoir, part travelogue, and part revelation about the effect travel has on me.

The tales are local.

In Italy, the nun at a bus station in Catania in Sicily was incredibly knowledgeable about the local delicacy, mortadella. I was waiting for a bus to the beautiful town of Taormina with views over Mount Etna, the active volcano. Later in the day, the nun’s recommendation proved accurate.

In Bulgaria, I became slowly inebriated when a local villager offered me the opportunity to sample his homemade slivovitz in his garden – all the while we wrote down football results on a piece of paper as the sun beat down from a blue sky.

In Istanbul, I had a conversation with a super-smooth carpet-seller. He was giving me directions to the major tourist sights and, strangely enough, all those directions went past his shop. How amazing is that?

From the magic realism of the tropics to the ‘gritty city’, Latin American literature is as rich and beguiling as the region itself

As Italy eases restrictions further, we report from Venice, where hotels and restaurants are eager to welcome back overseas visitors but some fear a return to mass tourism

The dense streets of the city’s Noailles district are usually thrumming with activity. As cafes and restaurants start reopening, we find locals excited to welcome visitors back

Travel is an amazing privilege, you probably realise that now you’ve been deprived of it. I know I do. We should never take it for granted. I travel because my own father always said he would travel after he’d retired, but he never got the chance because he died from cancer when he was 49. I travel for him when I go to places as well as for myself.

Julian’s Journeys is a collection of 34 travel stories. These stories are part memoir, part travelogue, and part revelation about the effect travel has on me.

The tales are local.

In Italy, the nun at a bus station in Catania in Sicily was incredibly knowledgeable about the local delicacy, mortadella. I was waiting for a bus to the beautiful town of Taormina with views over Mount Etna, the active volcano. Later in the day, the nun’s recommendation proved accurate.

In Bulgaria, I became slowly inebriated when a local villager offered me the opportunity to sample his homemade slivovitz in his garden – all the while we wrote down football results on a piece of paper as the sun beat down from a blue sky.

In Istanbul, I had a conversation with a super-smooth carpet-seller. He was giving me directions to the major tourist sights and, strangely enough, all those directions went past his shop. How amazing is that?

Author Joanne Harris looks back at childhood holidays on France’s Atlantic coast where she would roam barefoot, swim and eat figs off the trees

Put your best foot forward and have a go at navigating this quiz

Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga dazzled the king of Spain, set up diplomatic links with 17th-century Europe and even met the pope

I have added some of my images to the PicFair site.

The photos include images of Leon in Spain, Symi in the Dodecanese Islands, Corfu in the Ionian Islands, the Titanic Centre in Belfast, the Callanish Standing Stones on Lewis, The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Dunluce Castle in Antrim, and The Giant’s Causeway.

You can see them here

From a Saramago masterpiece to Monica Ali’s rural blues, via mountains, cities and coast, bookmark this reading list for a flavour of Portugal – and its people