Travel or Tourism?

I'm not sure where I picked it up from, but I've always wanted to participate a little in the life of places I visit. I don't like visiting the sights of a destination as much as I like getting some idea of the habits of the people who live there. This caused tension for me when I was a child. For example, I visited Rome with a school class and although I can remember going to many ancient places, the parts of Rome that are most vivid in my mind are the trams, the pasta and the soft drink.

When I am visiting somewhere I tend to focus on small items - breakfast comes with goats milk, bread is really hard (or dark if you are in Germany), builders labourers all wear the same blue trousers (in Provence at least), and so on. Summing up all these items gives me a feeling for a place and something I can take with me to expand the possibilities of how I live.

One of the four books I am currently reading is The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton. This is shaking up my view of travel to some degree, but I find that where I differed from my fellow tourists as a child, I have more in common with the content of this book. Although maybe I have turned into a travel snob.

Alain de Botton's writing is entertaining. For example, talking about good weather days at the start of Winter:
They were like false signes of recovery in a patient upon whom death has already passed its sentence.

I don't think this will stack rank higher than de Botton's Status Anxiety, but it has so far been a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours.