One summer my friend and I decided to go to Italy for a holiday and we decided to travel there without going through a travel agency. You know, you would be submerged (淹没) in crowds of tourists and lose lots of opportunities to get familiar with the country more closely. We started to think over our trip and managed to come up with a free tour of Italy.

The trip was not very long but it was still very impressive (印象深刻的). We look forward to going there again! Of course, we spent lots of time arranging (安排) the trip, but it was well worth it! Of course I was afraid that something would go wrong and I was especially anxious about my visa, but everything went quite smoothly in the end.

The most difficult part was getting a visa (签证) without an invitation. In the Italian consulate (领事馆), one must hand in some official papers proving that one has a hotel booked for oneself in order to get the visa. Then we had to solve the ticket problem. Airlines often sell cheap tickets and we bought ours far in advance. The next step was to book a hotel. We finally booked a hotel about 30 km away from the heart of Rome and it was the perfect choice for our trip.

Every day we took a train that carried us to the heart of Rome. Our big house, which was surrounded by the forest, was a rare place for the fresh air and absolute silence, beautiful views, hospitable hosts, comfortable living conditions delighting us to no end. Besides this, we were very lucky that our mistress was a Russian. She gave us a lot of advice that was of great use. She told us what transport to choose and where the best places to go.

Don’t be afraid to arrange your trip by yourself. It’s not difficult! The only thing I’ll say right now is that we really enjoyed traveling by ourselves. We walked with a map and a guide­book to wherever we wanted and we even met some of our fellow countrymen on the way just two or three times. So, if you’re also planning a “single” trip, don’t forget to take a Russian­Italian phrasebook as people in Italy prefer to speak in their native tongue.

When you are arranging to travel alone, you may have a million questions: Where should you go? Will there be someone to talk to? How do you stay safe? And is it all right to travel alone? In fact, traveling alone is not as frightening as it seems.【小题1】

Honestly speaking, traveling alone for the first time is more about the experience than the destination. So make sure to choose a place that you feel comfortable with. It could be somewhere close to home.【小题2】

Always make a plan. That way you’ll avoid worrying too much over where you’re staying, what to see and how you’re getting from A to B.

When you’re traveling alone for the first time, booking hotels ahead of time is extremely necessary.

Scheduled accommodations can make you less nervous. In addition, when you book your hotel【小题3】. By doing it, you won’t be lost.

If you’re going to a touristy place like Thailand, there are lots of other people who are traveling alone. Most likely, they’ll be easy to talk to and they’ll want to communicate. They might also ask you to join them for dinner or a beer. That happens a lot.

Your family and friends love you and probably worry about you every day. What if you are travelling alone for a long time without keeping in touch with them?【小题5】 that will make you and them feel safer. And in case something does happen, they’ll know where you are.

I’m not a full-time traveler. I spend most days working to earn a living just like you do. But whenever a chance arises for me to visit a far-off country, I jump at it.

When studying abroad in New Zealand, I travelled extensively all over the country with two friends. We booked everything from whale watching to a private flight over the Southern Alps, and racked up some impressive credit card bills. Another international student almost looked down her nose at our pricey adventures, declaring that she had come to New Zealand to study, not to empty her savings account on travel.

My question to her came. Why would you come halfway around the world to save your money and keep your nose pressed into a book every weekend? Would you go to China and not visit the Great Wall because it consumes money? Would you go to Italy and skip visiting the Vatican because it requires an admission ticket?

I know where I would like my life to go in the coming months and years. But there are no guarantees that things will go as planned. Practically, nothing will go as planned.

“Oh, I’ll travel when I retire.” “I’ll travel when the kids are grown.” “I’ll travel when the house is paid off.” How often we hear others say these? I hear these excuses all the time. But you know what occurs? Age. And stress. And, well, life. Life happens and by that time, you have bad knees and weak lungs and you simply cannot visit all those places you dreamed about in your youth. How sad! I don’t want to end up like that, holding on to youthful travel dreams that will never be reality.

So I often think, what if “sometime later” never came?

So if you are privileged enough to be able to afford to travel, then you should attack it with curiosity and energy and a sense of adventure.

So travel young, and travel far.