Where everybody knows your name

One of the nicest things that happened to us on our three-month tour of Italy was on the last evening of our September stay in the southern city of Monopoli, Puglia. We had been to a particular restaurant (La Dolce Vita) multiple times during our visit. Of all the pizzas we had eaten in Italy, their variation of a margarita pizza (with different types of tomatoes, a drizzle of pesto, and the most delicious crust) was my all-time best. We’d take a visitor there, eaten outside and in, and on one memorable visit we’d started our meal outside, and taken cover inside when it began to rain. I’d tried out my rudimentary Italian on the staff, and they had been very tolerant! That last night, after taking our order, the waiter left us a complimentary appetiser. “For the locals,” he said with a wink. My heart melted. And ached, because it was our second last night in Italy.

So when a fellow blogger highlighted this article about “becoming a regular” at a bar or café when you are travelling, I could completely relate. Whilst I love to visit new places, I also love that feeling of comfort and familiarity, the conversations that can result, the information and local knowledge we can pick up, the appreciation we can give the staff and owners that they are doing something right. It makes decisions easy – and when you are travelling for a long time, decision-overload can be a real thing! It’s why I try to stay a bit longer in certain places when I travel, rather than moving on every day or two. It’s why I loved Taste, our now-departed favourite brunch/dinner local restaurant. Why we went every second night to a local garden bar in the north of Italy, to try out their extensive list of prosecco wines and just relax. And in the same town, if we hadn’t gone back several times to the same trattoria I would never have tasted their heavenly pumpkin/parmesan gnocchi, or or sat outside in a medieval square chatting with the larger-than-life owner who recognised us.

Sure, repeat visits can be disappointing. It’s hard to recreate the magic of some experiences. But sometimes our favourite places just get better and better. And we all benefit from that. So although everybody might not know our name at these repeat visits, they bring a little bit of extra humanity to all our interactions when the locals recognise our faces, and our smiles. It means we leave a tiny bit of ourselves with them, and bring home something of their place to our place. (Like the pumpkin gnocchi in my freezer.) So although I love trying new places, when travelling and when at home, I do find that repeat visits are often more satisfying.

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