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Raised in Coventry, UK and transplanted to Vancouver, BC, writer Ryan Frawley has won various Canadian literary awards. His debut novel, Scar, was published in 2011.
In 2016, he moved to Italy with his wife and cat and spent the next two years traveling around the continent. Towers Temples Palaces is the story of his time there.
He now lives in the south of France.
Today, we read his beautiful essay on authenticity, mass tourism, and what defines a place. In our interview, Ryan shares his philosophy of travel.
From the show:
“… I think in some ways writers, or at least I, need novelty, a certain amount of novelty in your life. You need something to kind of spark your brain and get you thinking about things in a new way. And I find travel is absolutely fantastic for that…”
“… Lisbon may be Europe's last major city to be shattered by tourism. Then again, it was always a shattered city anyway. This is a city of crooked alleys, sloping streets, and tiny neighborhoods that have almost nothing to do with one another, except for the spectacular views from the miradores, or viewpoints, where the tourists who outnumber the locals nine to one can wave at each other while they enjoy a drink…”
“…because there are too many tourists, Hallstatt doesn't feel like Austria. It doesn't feel like anywhere. It feels like a total theme park. In fact, it kind of is. They built a full-scale replica of Hallstatt in China because it was so popular with Chinese tourists that they built a fake version of the city in China for people to go to. So that brings in all kinds of interesting questions of what's authentic?…”
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