Sure Travel Journey 6.2 Autumn 2020 | Page 17

“I hardly ever follow typical
guides – for the most part,
I seek out tips from
locals and expats”
a meaningful way. My favourite theatres
include the Palais Garnier, Vienna Opera
House and the Mariinsky Theatre in
St Petersburg.
When it comes to artists, my favourites
are Picasso, Matisse and Gustav Klimt, so
I highly recommend the Picasso Museum
in Paris, the Musee d’Orsay and the
Matisse Gallery in Marrakech. In terms of
contemporary artists, I’m obsessed with
LRNCE, a young Moroccan artist. I recently
went to her studio in Marrakech and
struggled to leave empty-handed!
Do you ever skip things the
guidebooks say you “have to do”
in favour of your own interests?
I hardly ever follow typical guides – for
the most part, I seek out tips from locals
and expats. They’re the people in a city
who are going to know about cool places
before they’re cool, so I always keep in
touch with my readers and friends all over
the globe. I still like to visit main tourist
attractions to see them, but I never plan my
trips around them. My plans usually revolve
around coffee shops, local boutiques,
neighbourhoods to roam and visiting
galleries and museums.
Your Instagram pages share a lot of
your personal life – how do you decide
what to share and how to share it?
Clockwise from opposite page: Wanaka
Lake on the South Island of New Zealand.
Botswana safari camp. Looking up in the
Louvre. A white Christmas in Vienna.
I opened up my life to share my own
journey in the hopes of inspiring other
women to also travel solo. Before I started
travelling alone, I was much shyer, more
cautious and nervous with strangers. It has
completely transformed me into the person
I am today. So I share as much as I can –
the good, the bad and the real. I like sharing
when things go wrong, because I don’t
want to portray a perfect lifestyle, body
image or even emotional state of being.
Follow Brooke’s solo adventures on
@worldwanderlust
© ADOBESTOCK.COM
WHERE IN THE WORLD?
FLORENCE!
Florence was founded in 59 BC as a
lowly Roman military outpost, but the
tiny city of moneylenders, merchants
and textile makers eventually grew into
medieval Europe’s centre of trade.
This was the birthplace of the modern
Italian language, and the local coin, the
florin, became an international monetary
standard. But it wasn’t all business:
the city’s artists (including Donatello,
Raphael, Galileo Galilei and Leonardo
da Vinci) launched the Renaissance, a
movement that shaped art, science and
discovery across the globe.
In fact, Florence is so drenched in
beauty that it is responsible for an
art-induced medical condition called
“Stendhal Syndrome” (also sometimes
referred to as “Florence Syndrome”!),
a psychosomatic disorder that causes
sweating, dizziness, fainting and even
heart attacks as a result of bearing
witness to too much beauty. The
condition was named after one of
the earliest recorded cases, when the
French novelist and critic Stendhal
made himself sick on art while visiting
Florence in 1817.
VISIT ITALY WITH SURE TRAVEL
Sure Travel offers a number of
packages to explore Italy, from the
beaches of the Med to its amazing
cities and beyond. Or we’ll customise
any itinerary for your dream holiday.
Contact your nearest Sure Travel
agency / visit www.suretravel.co.za
or call 0861 47 48 49.
MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE // 17