Speedy Boarding with Gillian Longworth McGuire
Eight quick questions with someone who really does know best
Welcome back to Speedy Boarding, a bi-weekly series on Not That You Asked that is great news for those of you who are getting sick of me. That’s because it’s a series where I ask some of my favourite writers on Substack eight quick-ish questions about travel. So, the vast majority of the words you’re about to read weren’t written by me but by someone else.
This week the questions are being answered by
. Gillian has lived in some very interesting places in the pastGillian’s bio just about explains why I love her work - if I need recommendations I go to Gillian. She really does know best.
Now, let’s get to the questions.
Where is the best place you’ve ever been and why?
I just moved from Rome to Venice. Both of those places are pretty terrific and I am in awe literally every day, but I have to do all the same dull everyday things that you do anywhere like do laundry, go to the post office and the dentist. I often say it is an extraordinary backdrop to an ordinary life.
My favourite place is Ponza, a tiny island in the Tyrrhenian sea that is halfway between Rome and Naples. I love the island’s celebration of their patron saint that happens every June 20th that is part solemn ritual with a procession on land and sea and part carnival fun-fair with concerts and fireworks and trucks that come form the mainland and make hot sugared hazelnuts in battered copper urns. The sea is deep and clear and can be emerald or turquoise or navy blue depend on which cove the boat has dropped anchor. There is a port with colourful painted houses and bars where they bring us our order without even asking because we always get the same thing year after year.
Where is the place you most want to visit?
Japan. When we were moving from Rome to Venice I was excited because I couldn’t get lost in Rome anymore. That kind of mastery is comforting and something I am quite proud of but I also understood that I needed something new to figure out. I think that Japan, a country I have never been to, know very little about the culture history and have only a basic understanding of the food culture sounds like a fantastic adventure. I spent my 20’s and 30’s in places with life threatening situations or creatures. The idea of being a little confused by how to take the subway or about what I being served for lunch is my idea of adventure now.
Who's your dream travel companion?
The most important thing is that they share my travel anxieties. I am always afraid I will miss my train/flight/ferry. That means I get to the airport/train station/ferry dock what good pals of mine call monstrously early.
I have been traveling with my husband, Mark, for over 30 years on all kinds of journeys from road trips in West Africa via bush taxi to romantic weekends in Paris. We have perfected the travel divisions of labour. I book hotels and plan meals. He deals with the rental car and driving and keeps track of our passports.
Great news! I'm going to buy you a hat. The catch is that you have to wear this hat on every future travel trip at all times. What kind of hat would you like?
I have longed for a classic straw hat from Borsalino for ages. I have never bought it for myself because in my anxious (are you sensing a theme here?) minds eye I can see the exact moment when the boat turns the corner by the I Faraglioni del Calzone muto in Ponza where it flies off my head.
Where is the place you never want to go back to?
I have been thinking about this question for weeks. It has proved impossible for me to answer. I have had bad trips and unmemorable trips but I honestly can not think of a place I would NEVER go back to. Instead there are places I am not able to return to. I lived and worked in Niger for a long time in the early 1990s. Places l visited like Diffa near Lake Chad and Agadez on the edge of the Sahara and Gao on the Malian border are completely off limits today. Because of complicated geopolitics there are no more road trips in battered Toyota Hilux pickups or much more comfortable Land Cruisers, to the Cure Sale with Tuareg and Wodaabe nomads, or through Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso on the way to the Dogon cliffs and Mopti in Mali.
You've been given a million pounds to live your best life in one destination for a year. The problem is - you're trapped there and can't leave for the year. Where would you go?
I would kind of love to have a million pounds to live in Venice for a year. Imagine the boat trips and Carnival balls and fancy cocktails at hotel bars. I can probably figure out a way to do all of that for less than a million pounds so my pick is New York City.
I have spent a lot of time there but never lived there. I would rent a big apartment in Castle Village in Hamilton Heights with a fireplace and view of the Hudson. I would have a car service. I would go to the Met and the MOMA and do all of the Tenement museum itineraries. I would go to Matinees and Broadway shows. I would go to Coney Island and walk on the boardwalk and eat hot dogs and frozen custard. I would eat Dim Sum at Golden Unicorn and slices of pepperoni pizza from Two Boots down town. I would sit at the counter in old fashioned diners and take home plastic wrapped black and white cookies. I would walk 80 blocks down Broadway to get bagels from Absolute Bagel. I would walk around with silly iced coffee drinks and go to yoga classes. I would be a regular at my pal Robert's about to open pace Sempre. When I miss Italy, Beatrice at Il Posto Accanto would feed me proper plates of pasta. I would take tours with my historian pal Keith Tallion and get my friends in Brooklyn and New Jersey to come visit me in the city. This will definitely cost more than a million pounds.
How do you decide where to visit next?
I am a creature of habit and find great comfort in returning to the same places over and over and over again. It has been a long time since I have gone somewhere completely new. Part of that is a habit from the reality of our life when our son Noah was small. Mark travelled all the time for work and also didn’t have a lot of time off. We really needed to maximize the relax part of the time when we three were all together. Going to familiar places made that easy.
Now Noah is an adult living in Los Angeles and Mark is retired and I am trying to expand my travel comfort zone in 2024. We just bought a house so there is not a lot in the travel budget this year. Luckily we live in Italy and there are a million amazing places I haven’t been to yet. I ask friends for their advice, I make lists and of course I scroll on my phone. I have a few Instagram folders filled with posts about Milan and Ravenna and an obscure town about two hours away from Venice filled with Fascist architecture. I just started a folder for Japan.
We just got back from a wedding in Ragusa in Sicily. Because Sicily in the late winter early spring is much easier that Sicily on the summer I decided to make a real trip out of it by driving across the island from Catania to Palermo. I made a Google map with towns and places I wanted to visit between Ragusa and Palermo and booked a few hotels. It was a wonderful trip. We had a few days in sunny Ortigia and a stop in Piazza Armeria to see the mosaics. We ended with four days in Palermo where took a food tour with a company I have travelled with in Naples and saw a bazillion dazzling mosaics and ate at least one sugary ricotta filled pastry a day.
And finally, what's the one thing you never leave home without when travelling?
Aside from all the practical things like a phone and all the cords/batteries/chargers/plugs. A bikini is always in my carryon. You never know there might be a pool or a spa or a hot tub or a boat trip in your future. You might as well be prepared.
A huge thanks to Gillian for agreeing to be part of Speedy Boarding. If you liked this post please do consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to Not That You Asked. Paid subscribers get two free travel guides a month for just £4.99, which is way cheaper than Netflix. If £4.99 is a bit steep in this economy there’s a 50% off forever sale on at the moment to celebrate two years of Not That You Asked.
The next Speedy Boarding will drop on the 2nd of May, next up are
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This was a great read. What fun to hear a little more about Gillian's adventurous past! And NYC is such a fantastic pick for the million pound question!! I'm sitting here trying to decide what to have for breakfast and would kill for an everything with cream cheese from Absolute Bagel.
I appreciate the insight about the amazing backdrop that Italy can offer to an otherwise ordinary life. This is what tourists don't get, too dazzled by history, art, good food and, let's be honest, army men's butts.