Hi guys my name is Luana and I’m from North Italy. Since I can remember I wanted to explore the World but it took me a few years to build up the courage. When I finished High School I lived a regular lifestyle for a few years, working and spending my money every summer on partying in countries like Spain and Greece. I felt like something was missing.

In April 2016, I took my first leap into a World outside of my comfort zone. My first solo journey was to London and I had one main goal - to improve my English. At first, I was terrified of being alone in such a chaotic and busy city but slowly I adapted to being alone, growing more confident to meet new people and to find my way around. I remember thinking “this is the best feeling ever”.

After London I moved back to Italy but I started to feel like a bird in a cage. I felt the urge to do something new and the confidence to take a bigger step so I decided to fly to the other side of the World

4 Years in Australia

When I left for Australia I had done little to no research which left the lifestyle, the climate and the nature a mystery I was about to uncover. I threw myself into the experience unprepared which I think was an unconscious decision to make it even more exciting. It was great initially. Living in hostels is fun because you meet lots of people and have lots of parties and I think everyone can get a lot out of doing this for a period of time.

After some time however I started to see that I was living an unbalanced lifestyle both financially and mentally. The idea of throwing yourself in without any planning is something that people often associate with travelling but in my opinion it is just a one time thing. In our current trip to Asia I had researched much better into the seasons, the costs, where to stay, what to do etc. and it has led to a much more stable trip which I imagine is what most people would want the second time round.

I wanna show you some of the skills I have learned whilst travelling

As I mentioned before my goal when I moved to London was to improve my English and that continued to improve in Australia. I had lots of roommates from other countries which allowed me to pick up a lot of different accents and dialects. Working in jobs such as sales and hospitality which pushed me continuously to talk to customers.

There are some other random skills I picked up whilst travelling and I am sure some of them will come in handy later in life. For example, in Australia I learnt how to paint the interior and exterior of a house and in Thailand, I learned how to administer medication and care for unwell street dogs.

Travel helped me better understand my priorities when living in a place

Doesn’t it ever happen to you? You visit a place and you love it so much that you start to wonder what it would be like to live there. I do it all the time.

Over time my preferences started to change in the type of place I was looking to stay from vibrant party places to tranquil places surrounded by nature. During the first part of my trip in Australia I lived in Bondi Beach which was fun and naturally beautiful but after a while I started to feel like I wanted some peace away from the crowds. When I later explored the rainforest in Port Douglas I was completely immersed in the mixture of beach and wildlife around me and thought this is what I need.

Currently I try as much as I can to travel to places less touristy and also I don’t mind staying in one place for at least a few weeks to better immerse myself in the culture.

What has travelling taught me about how to live?

I learnt to be minimalist. When you are travelling you discover that less is better and bringing excess clothes, shoes, makeup … will weigh you down. You start to think “did I really need all of that in the first place”.

I grew comfortable being alone. A lot of people I met in Australia are temporary, someone goes someone stay, this is the life, from everyone you can learn, doesn’t matter if then change location or place in the world;

What matters is the journey, not the destination.

I never care about where I was but I care about enjoying the moment. Doesn’t matter where you are, you can be in the best place in the world, is more important which people are around you;

Lose yourself. So many times I travel solo in Australia in the middle of nowhere, just me, a car and my tent, I turned off the phone because I didn’t want to speak to anyone, just listen to the sound of nature, the ocean and enjoy the life around me. Some people think that this is scary especially for a girl by herself but that’s not true.

Real travelling is meeting the locals in their natural environments. When I was in the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand I met so many kind and lovely locals.

Closing Thoughts

I can spend a day explaining to you the benefits of travel even if sometimes it is not always as easy as it seems. You can post a nice picture of the most beautiful place in the world but still don’t be happy.

Many of us have a difficult time dealing with the uncertainty that goes along with taking risks, travel is not always so easy and fun, but it helped me to realise how small we are in the world and grow more confidence.