Globetrotters Writer Spotlight

Summary

Susan Nanfeldt, a retired American writer from the East Coast, shares her passion for cultural immersion through travel, her cherished memories of Italy, and practical travel advice.

Abstract

Susan Nanfeldt is featured in the Globetrotters Writer Spotlight, expressing her enthusiasm for joining the publication and sharing her travel experiences. She values travel for the educational insights it provides into different cultures, including their daily lives, traditions, and cuisines. Susan's favorite travel activity is observing local life to understand the rhythm and challenges of daily living in different places. Originating from an East Coast inner city, her multicultural upbringing fueled her curiosity about the world. Now retired, she has ample time to pursue her travel interests. A highlight of her travels was visiting her father's childhood home in Sambuceto, Italy, where she was warmly welcomed by the current residents. Susan enjoys spending her free time with family, reading, writing, and planning future travels. She advocates for traveling light and has a deep appreciation for Italy, where she would choose to live if given the chance. Her preferred modes of travel include flying internationally and then using local transportation. Through her travels, she has learned that people worldwide share more similarities than differences, that cultural stereotypes are often misleading, and that each individual is a small part of the larger human experience.

Opinions

Susan believes that travel is a profound learning experience that extends beyond surface-level cultural aspects to the core of daily life.
She finds great joy and significance in connecting with her family's heritage and the hospitality of strangers.
Susan emphasizes the importance of packing lightly and suggests investing in a versatile travel wardrobe.
She has a strong affinity for Italy, not only for its food and culture but also because of her personal connections and language proficiency.
Susan's travel philosophy includes adopting local transportation methods to better immerse herself in the destination.
Her experiences have led her to conclude that cultural diversity does not overshadow the fundamental commonalities among people.
She challenges the notion that cultural stereotypes provide accurate knowledge about other countries and their inhabitants.
Susan reflects on the humbling realization that each person is just a small part of the global community.

I travel to learn

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Hi Globetrotters. My name is…Susan Nanfeldt. I’m happy to have been added as a writer to Globetrotters. I’m excited to be able to share my travel adventures and to be inspired by yours.

I love to travel because…I love to learn about other cultures, traditions, cuisines, life styles, languages, religions, governments, and the pleasures, routines, joys, frustrations, fears, and challenges of daily life for people in other cultures.

My number one travel activity is…observing local life. I enjoy learning what the pace of life is like, how generations interact, what and where locals shop and eat. In other words, to gain insights into what life is like for people who live in the places I visit.

I come from…a USA East Coast inner city. I grew up immersed in an environment of foreign languages and heavily accented English. Perhaps it’s this background that makes me so curious about other cultures.

I work as a…retiree, which gives me plenty of time to travel. In my former lives I was a court stenographer, a stay-at-home mom, and an eighth grade language arts teacher.

The best place I’ve been is…Sambuceto, Italy. In the 1980s I took my first trip to Italy to meet my father’s family in Pescara. A cousin drove me to nearby Sambuceto to see the casello, the small house which stood a few yards from the railroad tracks, in which my father and his siblings had been raised by his mother who managed the railroad crossing. As we stood at a distance taking pictures, the elderly couple who were the current occupants came outside. My cousin explained to them who I was and why we were there.

They immediately invited us in for a drink and a bite to eat and encouraged me to go upstairs and into the tiny bedrooms. They even invited us to stay for dinner, but we had already committed to dine with other family members that evening. The visit to the casello has been my most memorable and precious travel experience.

In my spare time, I like to…visit family, read, write, continue improving my Italian through classes and conversation, and research interesting places and itineraries for my next trip.

My top travel tip is…travel light. For frequent travelers, it’s worth investing in a “travel wardrobe,” light weight, quick dry clothes that can be layered and packed into nothing larger than a carry on.

If I could live somewhere else, I’d live in…Italy. I’ve traveled in Italy, north to south. I have family there and I speak the language adequately enough to get by. I love and admire the family/people focused culture and, of course, the food!

My favorite way to travel is…by plane to international destinations and then as the locals do — metro, bus, tram, train, foot.

Three lessons I’ve learned from traveling are…while there is great cultural diversity in our world, we are really all more alike than we are different.

Much of what we think we know about another country and its people is based merely on cultural stereotypes.

Each of us is merely a speck in the ocean of humanity.

Globetrotters Writer Spotlight — Susan Nanfeldt

I travel to learn