37 cities, a suitcase and a city guide
The city as a teacher. About Monocle guides and traveling as a method.
Somewhere in my cupboard are 37 Monocle city guides. From Abu Dhabi to Venice. They're too heavy to carry, too beautiful to throw away, and just useful enough to understand a city in one afternoon.
Monocle writes city guides as if the city were a person. Not "top 10 sights" but: where does the architect have breakfast? Which bookstore does the owner know your name? In which neighborhood do you hear birds in the morning?
I've visited cities in three ways: as a tourist (2006, Dubai, overwhelmed), as a professional (2014, New York, too busy to see anything), and as a flâneur (2018, Barcelona, without a plan). The third way is the only one that works.
You get to know a city by getting lost. By choosing the wrong restaurant and discovering it was the right one. By visiting the market instead of the museum. By watching how people start their day — with espresso at the bar or with coffee to go.
Three cities that shaped me. Milan: where I learned that beauty and function are not opposites. Cape Town: where I learned that luxury and poverty can share the same street. New York: where I learned that a city that never sleeps never rests.
Traveling is not an escape. It is a confrontation with how things could be done differently. And every time you come home, you look at your own street a little more sharply.