The idea of ​​the traveler with pen and notebook, and the contemporary counterpart of the backpacker blogger, is rooted in our collective imagination. Why do many travelers like to keep a journal?

The travel diary is a tool that can increase the quality and depth of our travel experience and, for those who love to write and travel, travel writing can become a profession.

In this regard, Lonely Planet has published a travel guide in English entitled " Lonely Planet Guide to Travel writing. Expert advice from the world's leading travel publisher ”(3rd edition).

In his introduction, the author states that " regardless of what your goals are as a traveler and writer, the rewards of traveling by writing - and of approaching the journey with the travel writer mentality - are numerous. First of all, you become a better traveler ".

Travel and literature

Between writing and traveling there is historically a profound connection that is reflected in the travel literature, a literary genre that agglutinates an infinite quantity of texts written in every age and at every latitude.

Il Milione by Marco Polo (end of 200), The journey in Italy by Goethe (1817), Heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad (1889), In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin (1977), Secret Tibet by Fosco Maraini (1955), Latin American by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (1992), are just some of the best known travel journals that form part of the international literary heritage and offer precious windows to the world.

Even anthropologists, in parallel with the drafting of the field notes indispensable for research, often keep a personal diary. An example among all, the Diaries of Malinowski - published posthumously in 1967 - in which the anthropologist gives vent to the difficulties of working in the Trobriand Islands (New Guinea) and of the encounter with cultural otherness.

What a sense to give to travel writing

Writing a travel diary may seem like an action that takes time away from more important activities, such as preparing the destination for the next day, socializing, resting. If you have this opinion but would like to experiment with writing a travelogue, try to change your perspective on the meaning of writing while traveling .

We must not write in the attempt to document every detail of the journey with the idea that the detailed description can give readers or our memory the memory of the experiences lived. The diary is not used to describe detached places and landscapes, but rather is a means to express what the journey generates in us: thoughts, reflections, feelings and emotions .

Writing on the road should not even result in the enumeration of every event of the day, it would become a mechanical act and the narrative style would tend to take on boring tones. If during everyday life we ​​do not record what time we wake up and take the bus, why do it while traveling?

Furthermore, not all the moments of the journey are noteworthy, on the contrary. An integral part of the experience consists of long hours of waiting due to setbacks, delays and bad weather, or days of stagnation due to various needs that require us to spend part of the journey in the monotony of any hotel. If these uninteresting moments do not stimulate particular emotions and reflections in you, do not feel compelled to include them in your diary.

The travel diary should not even be designed as a record of prices and expenses faced. Keeping a check on your budget is useful, but don't reduce the written memory of your trip.

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Some good reasons to write on the go

Freed from the burden of the diary concept as a "duty of the good traveler", you can begin to appreciate the value, in some ways therapeutic, of travel writing .

The travel diary must, first and foremost, benefit yourself in the present moment and help you to face in the best way the doubts and difficulties that arise during each journey. Especially for those who travel alone, it happens to spend several days without being able to communicate in their own language and often even in English.

In this case, writing a diary can make up for the impossibility of expressing oneself fully and expressing one's emotions to the people met during the journey.

During the journey, moreover, it can happen to be witnesses of disturbing events for the observer, who need to be assimilated and understood through writing .

Once back home, you will probably never return to re-reading your diary, while relatives and friends taken from their respective lives, will prefer to listen to your travel stories in person rather than read the blog.

But that's not what matters. The most important memories will always remain with you, with or without diary. What can change, however, is the quality of the journey if you give yourself the gift of stopping to hear that questions, intuitions and answers are born in you as you travel .