2ndcupoftea

Two weeks ago, from a small wifi-abilitated (suddenly crucial) studio apartment near the Fondamente Nove back canals in Venice, I bought the domain name, shedding the rather cumbersome wordpress between the ‘tea’ and the ‘.com’. To anyone but myself it was a publishing event that passed, I believe, entirely unnoticed. Nevertheless for 2ndcupoftea, this represents a new and exciting phase. Followers from day one will…

…be all too aware of the circumstances surrounding why last year I totally lost the will to write anything (public anyway). However, despite no muse appearing (Muses, Wings and Mongolia) the love and passion for travelling and the associated writing about it has returned stronger than ever.

Were further incentives required, one came along in the form of Brescia Tourism (Brescia Page). This, recently concluded ‘bloggers trip’ on which I had the honour of being invited opened my eyes to a whole new side of writing. If not exactly paid, then at the very least exceptionally cool free stuff is available in exchange for blogs, posts, articles, links, tweets, instagrams, foursquares and such iconic blogging tools and terms. I had no idea. I feel I have seen but a glimpse of the very tip of the iceberg. However it has become instantly obvious it is an iceberg on which literally thousands of more savvy bloggers than I have already pitched their stake and from which the slippery downside is surely ones integrity and honesty as a blogger.

I write because I love to do so. I feel some bloggers blog almost out of obsession. I have seen already evidence of ‘it’ becoming all about the blog. Fair enough if you are trying to make this your full time profession, something extremely hard to do, perhaps you have to. I have met people who work and write and photograph exceptionally hard. Running a successful – in financial terms – blog is a full time job. But for me it has to be about the travel, the experience first and the blog second. I still want often to leave my camera and my beloved iPad firmly locked up in my room and just to feel the sunset, taste the dinner, participate in the festa, not simple take notes and photograph it. I do not want to become obsessed with followers, retweets, alexa rankings and such like. Not yet, anyhow.

The future of 2ndcupoftea is still as unclear as that of its author. However, I will certainly aim to fill out my ‘Pages’ on the right with more tips, trying to make the site more complete as a genuinely useful tool for anyone wishing to journey to the places I know something about. I will always declare any incentives as I did with my recent Brescia trip and I will never recommend a restaurant, hotel, activity, destination unless I believe in it. What’s the point? As humans, not simply writers, we only really have our integrity, honesty and word. As for my articles or posts, these I have as little of a clue of what will be about as I did all those weeks ago on a beach when I pressed, ‘start blog’ (or something similar). With time, 2ndcupoftea has evolved into being about what I like about travel, unusual places, strange history or activities rarely taken on.

It is nevertheless commonplace I believe in Editorials to write something about what readers can expect in the immediate future. Well, as part of my ‘Heroes of History Series’ (Gianni and his Venice business cards was part one) two blogs are in the pipeline. This is a rather spontaneous series, as I have encountered over the past month three incredible individuals who combine a passion for history with business, made in Italy and quality. Look out for net making on the island of lake Iseo and soon the lemon groves of Lake Garda. Finally July holds more touring for me and the end of the month I set off finally of my Canterbury to Rome ‘pilgrimage’. Walking the Via Francigena, the less famous cousin of the Santiago trail. I have 50 days to walk over 1900 kms. This should lead to a post or two, surely.

In my job, as a tour guide, I help create the beaten path. In my free time, I do everything I can to get off it, with my blog I indulge my passion and write about it. Happy reading. I know I’ll have happy travelling.

~ by 2ndcupoftea on June 18, 2012.

Posted in 2nd Cup of Tea, Blogging, Editorial, Writing
Tags: 2nd Cup of Tea, France, Italy, Pilgrimage, Travel, Via Francigena, Writing