My name is Madeline Jhawar, I’m the owner of Italy Beyond the Obvious. I grew up in Edmonton, Canada but I left to go to college and never moved back. I’ve spent a year or more living in: Vancouver, Brussels, Stockholm, New York, Milan, Boston, and Chicago.
I now live in the heart of Silicon Valley, California, also known as the San Francisco Bay area.
When were you first bit by the travel bug?
Looking back, I realize that my parents started it all by exposing my brother and I to other cultures. We didn’t have a lot of money, so our vacations involved lots of camping in the Rocky Mountains. But they enrolled us in the French immersion program offered in the public schools, and we hosted lots of exchange students.
Because my dad was a professor, he could apply for international teaching assignments, so we had the opportunity to go to Brussels for a year and then to Bordeaux for a summer when I was 14. These trips weren’t glamorous: we were in a suburb of Bordeaux and my dad was working a lot. But, we got to go to Paris and of course it was fantastic for our French and for really immersing ourselves in the day-to-day life.
In high school, my school participated in an exchange program with a Japanese school. We hosted 2 Japanese students for a couple of weeks and then went to stay with them. That was pretty eye-opening.
From a young age, our parents told us that when we turned 18, we’d be going away for a year on an international exchange. They didn’t ask us whether we wanted to go – it wasn’t presented as a choice. We just knew that when we turned 18, it was something we’d do.
I went to Italy for a year, and my brother went to Ecuador. Neither of us ever moved back to Edmonton.
What’s your travel style? Why do you prefer this style of travel?
I’ve done it all! If I had to create my perfect travel style, it would probably be luxury accommodation but with connect-to-the-locals activities during the day, including some adventure, and local – not fancy – meals.
After college, I worked as a hiking & biking guide for Butterfield & Robinson, guiding 8-day tours in Italy. I’d do 6 trips back to back in the spring, take 8 weeks off during the summer (when it was too hot to hike and bike) and then do another 6 trips back to back during the fall. During those summer weeks, I’d stay in Europe and I was definitely in the backpacker category. It was go-with-the-flow, meet new people, don’t make plans, figure it out on the fly. I was 25 and it was great — for that age.
My favorite approach to travel has really been to be based somewhere long-term and live like a local during the week, and explore on weekends and holidays. So I go to work, go to the grocery store, get to know the neighbors, and explore a new area. I was lucky to be able to do this when I lived in Milan for 4 years, in Stockholm for 2 years, in New York for 2 years, in Vancouver for a year, in Boston for 2 years and in Chicago for 7 years.
Now, in the San Francisco Bay area, we take advantage of the city, the ocean, Napa Valley, and everything the area has to offer. The difference now is that it’s very kid-focused.
Our approach to travel with kids is really based on our families. We don’t have a lot of vacation time, and because of my business, I go to Italy on a regular basis. My husband is British-Indian and his sister lives in Switzerland. So our travel – apart from Italy – involves going to India, Switzerland, and England to visit his family, or to Canada to visit mine.
How do you fund your travels?
We both work a lot. I have an Italian travel planning business and my husband co-founded a startup that is doing well. We try to get flights with airline miles and credit card miles, we stay with relatives, and we splurge on experiences. Our goals when we travel as a family is to create and strengthen relationships, not to check things off a list.
Since we live in a great area of the world, we’ve considered renting our house out on AirBnB to make some money when we’re not here, but that’s still being discussed.
What first inspired you to start Italy Beyond the Obvious?
I was helping people plan trips to Italy for 10+ years (post Butterfield & Robinson). I was working for a semiconductor distributor in international operations and really doing it on the side. I quit my job when I had kids because I was traveling 50% and I wanted to focus on them for a few years. I started it slowly, out of passion, and it grew.
What’s been your most popular blog post? Why do you think this blog post resonated with your audience?
The post that has had the most shares, by far, is my Top 100 Italy Travel Tips post.
I published it right before I moved my site from http to https which wiped out all the shares. Before the switch, the post had more than 1,000 shares. I think this post resonated with people because they are good tips!
What’s been your favorite destination city and why?
That is a tough question. People always ask me “what’s your favorite place in Italy?” and I always respond with “for what?”. For kids, for food, for skiing, for beaches, for history, for summer, for spring…. for what? Milan was amazing when I was a single working woman who loved to go out in the evenings and do weekend getaways. Chicago was a fantastic place to live pre-kids and with small kids, but the school system was a challenge.
But I probably have to give the “favorite destination” prize to Stockholm. If Stockholm were not so cold and dark in the winter, it would be as popular a destination as Paris. It’s an absolutely stunning city, so easy to get around, so easy to live in. The Swedes have an amazing work-life balance and it’s a great place to raise a family. I loved my 2 years in Stockholm and I’d recommend it to anyone for a weekend or to go and live.
Is there a picture you’ve taken during your travels that you’d consider to be your favorite?
I don’t have one favorite photo, so that is tough. I do love the sugar cane stand photo because it’s a great contrast between modern and traditional India.
Everything happens on the streets, so street vendors are such a great representation of daily life. Sugar cane is so typical India, and the machine he uses looks old school, but the vendor is looking at his cell phone.
I love the cow in the street photo for the same reasons — everyone’s in the streets: rickshaws, motorbikes, bikes, pedestrian, and nobody is paying attention to the cows just lounging in the middle of the road.
Have you eaten anything during your travels that absolutely blew your mind? What was it and where?
I adore Indian food, and am lucky that my mother-in-law is an excellent cook. So of course I love our trips to India. But, travelers have to be careful in India to not eat anything with water in it – so no salads, no fruit that can’t be peeled, that sort of thing. Street food is considered a big no-no, but I love pani puri, which is street food. Last time we went to Calcutta, I asked my husband’s cousin whether she could take us to a safe pani puri street vendor. She did! It was amazing. It’s supposed to be a snack, but I think I ate a meal’s worth, and I was completely fine.
For anyone not familiar with pani puri: it’s a puffed crisp dough ball that is hollow on the inside. You pick up a ball, poke a hole in it, and add a filling which is usually chickpeas. Then you add a spicy water, which tastes amazing except it makes the whole thing soggy, so you have to eat it quickly, before it falls apart.
Tell us about one of your greatest experiences during your travels.
Climbing the Stromboli Volcano off Sicily, at night, was one of the most amazing experiences ever. The volcano erupts regularly every 15 minutes or so, and the fire against the night sky was gorgeous.
Tell us about one of your worst experiences during your travels.
Not sure what to pick! Let’s see….
- My appendix almost ruptured when I was in Italy and I had to have an appendectomy and stay 2 nights in an Italian hospital (the care was excellent).
- I was in Paris when the Concorde crashed.
- I was in Tel Aviv during the Dolphinarium discotheque massacre in 2001.
- I was in New York on 9-11.
- I was in New Jersey during the biggest blackout in US history in 2003.
Those are probably the top 5.
What’s surprised you the most about traveling?
That it really doesn’t have to be expensive.
What’s one thing you seek out in every city you visit no matter what?
The main square.
Do you have a favorite travel hack or best piece of travel advice?
I work with a lot of people who are very well-traveled and can only go to Italy in high season. They’re concerned about crowds and about being a tourist. They want to get off the beaten track.
So here’s my best piece of travel advice, which is relevant in these situations:
- Remember that famous sights are famous for a reason. They’re probably worth visiting, but it’s the way you visit them that can change the experience. Specifically, hire a private guide rather than booking yourself on a group tour. A good guide will make you forget about the crowds, I promise.
- Arrive at the Taj Mahal at sunrise or visit the Vatican Museums before they open or after they close.
Any future travel plans?
We are going to Portugal this summer for 2 weeks. It’s the first place we’ve taken our kids where we have no family members residing there. We’re getting together with my husband’s extended family and we’ve rented a big house in Lisbon for a week and then in the Algarve for a week.
Since I’m the travel planner, the family was looking to me to plan the trip, but I’ve never been to Portugal so I was googling “top 10 things to see in Portugal” just like everyone else!
These sorts of trips are important because it reminds me how my clients feel.
Favorite travel quote?
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. – Socrates
What has travel taught you?
Travel has taught me more than anything else has ever taught me. Mostly along the lines of: there are different ways of doing things that you’ve never heard of, that you’d never think of, that you might not even understand at first, but that are better or make more sense than the way you’ve been approaching the same problem.
From small things like tipping or the way people cross the street to larger things like attitudes toward vacations or towards women – the more you travel and see why and how people solve problems, the more you connect with those people, empathize with others, and realize that there is more than one way to accomplish something.
Especially living in the US, this country is so closed off. Whenever I leave and come back, I realize how US-centric everything is here. In other countries, people know what’s going on in the rest of the world. In the US, unless you search for it, world news and events don’t get communicated.
Special thanks to Madeline of Italy Beyond the Obvious for taking part in our Good Travel Interview series. Leave a comment below with your thoughts on the interview.
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