For Rick Steves, author of Europe Through the Back Door and host of Rick Steves’ Europe on PBS, travel is more than a leisurely pastime.
From a young age, Steves knew that traveling would be a major part of his life. When he was 14, his parents took him to visit relatives in Norway. It was there he realized the sheer number of humans who each had their own important story to tell. Four years later, he went back to Europe with a childhood friend.
“I remember hitchhiking across western Ireland,” Steves recalls. “We’d stick out our thumbs in whichever direction the sparse traffic was rolling. When asked where we were going, we’d say ‘Ireland’ and hop in.”
Steves has now spent a lifetime advocating for Americans to become “temporary locals.” Through his television series Rick Steves’ Europe, Steves has made himself into an essential resource for travelers wishing to explore Europe. Of all the travel skills he teaches, he says, connecting with the locals is the most rewarding of all.
“You can go deeper than traditions put on display for tourists,” he says. “A more intimate Europe survives. You find it best by becoming a temporary local. Make new friends where there are no postcards.”
To achieve this, Steves recommends traveling solo, deeming it the ultimate freedom and the best way to be more approachable and likely to connect with locals.
As for his favorite spot, Steves says that while Venice is one of the more crowded destinations in Europe, it is also one of the best places he’s visited as an adult.
“I've found that one of the best family trips we took was split between Venice and the Cinque Terre,” Steves says, continuing, “so, you’ve got Venice, which is all the sightseeing and the great churches, and an unforgettable city. Great for kids if they can swim. And then it’s a direct train line over to the Cinque Terre, the Italian Riviera. Free time on the beach, hiking through the vineyards. It was wonderful.”
His YouTube video touring Italy’s Cinque Terre is also one of his most popular, garnering more than 2.8 million views. While commercial success is certainly not part of the lifestyle he promotes, he is no stranger to it. Steves has been publishing books since 1980, including country guidebooks and city and regional guidelines.
In 2009, he published Travel as a Political Act, where he shared experiences and lessons from a lifetime of travel – the same experiences he plans to share at his local talk, An Evening with Rick Steves. The Dec. 2 event is made possible by the Westerville Public Library in partnership with several other central Ohio libraries.
“My goal is to inspire you to travel out of your comfort zone, gain an empathy with the other 96 percent of humanity and bring home what I consider the greatest of all souvenirs: a broader perspective,” Steves says.
Caitlyn Blair is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.