The deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie is quoted by Mark Nepo in Seven Thousand Ways to Listen as saying that, since she can’t hear, she feels  vibrations, saying they are one and the same. She points out that in Italian the word sentire means to hear and to feel. In fact it also means to smell. So it encompasses many of the senses, and in my understanding of the word does really mean all the senses.

This is a characteristic of Italy I’ve often tried to capture in words, always doing so inadequately. How perfectly Italian to have one word that expresses it all, though we have no equivalent word in English. I have only slowly come to understand sentire. Mostly it has been the ever-wise Suor Giovanna at our convent B&B, who has used this word and has slowly woken me to the multiple meanings of the word, to the all encompassing nature of it.

To truly experience the world in all its fullness we engage all the senses at once, what Nepo calls the one living sense. This is what happens to us and to those who travel with us to Italy – it is part of the magic that is that country. You can’t help but have all your senses engaged. It is partly an outgrowth of going slow, staying in one place for a week so you slow down, absorb the rhythms, let each and every sense become aroused. And partly this is Italy and Italians and how they live.

Nepo goes on to say, “Joy is a barometer that lets us know that everything is well tuned.” I love that. Just about everyone visiting Italy experiences joy. We certainly see it in those who travel with us. But I never moved beyond that to say everything is well tuned. Well, it is, and I think it is because we are not only hearing fully, we are using all our senses to take in the richness of Italy and of life. Well tuned in Italy – pretty nice!

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations” to Orvieto, Italy in 2003 and were founding members of Slow Travel Tours. Through Adventures in Italy they provided a cultural immersion experience. Many trips included the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complemented and reinforced exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enabled Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets. The Steiners retired in 2017 and sold Adventures in Italy to Michelle Logue, who has continued as a member of the Slow Travel Tours group. Michelle continues to offer trips in the same format and with the same spirit that Kristi and Bill hosted for 14 years. Learn more about Adventures in Italy small group trips in Orvieto. Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.