The Curation: Volume 50

A bucket list itinerary through Scotland by train, a homebody with no final destination, and special summer rentals in Italy, France, and Greece.

Wednesday’s post was a 30+ minute read, which I didn’t realize was going to be the case until after the fact. Oops! So today, it’s less dense. First, I’m opening up a little more about how I feel about this move. I feel a lot. Then, a full very in-depth bucket list itinerary traveling Scotland by train, from the list of the 50 trips I want to take. Lastly, eight really special rentals for summer in Italy, France, and Greece. All price ranges for all types of trips.

Please do tell, what are you most interested for the coming week? I want to deliver what you want.

Potentially Newsworthy

• Les Bassans is opening in Brittany (France) in June by the Fonteneille collection, which is a fantastic new announcement. Especially post-LVMH acquisition, this is one to be excited about. I am!

• Croatia is getting a Autograph Collection (Marriott) property, Isolano, in March. It’s gonna be a no for me, personally.

• I’m really not a Six Senses girlie but I always like to note when a noteworthy historic building is becoming a hotel. For Six Senses’ first property in Spain, in Ávila, outside Madrid, they’ll be taking over a castle from the 1500s, and the hotel will be called Six Senses Quexigal Palace, opening in 2026.

• Hotel Bauer in Venice is becoming a Rosewood. Please deliver on your promise of Sense of Place, Rosewood! At least it’s coming back to life.

• Oetker Collection is opening a new hotel in Saint Tropez, opening in 2027. That’s definitely one to look forward to, and will be a big addition to the town.

• The Beachside in Nantucket is a hotel I forgot to talk about reopening after being taken down to the studs and completely reimagined. It’s quite of-the-moment, but also potentially cool.

• The Wild One is a very cool design hotel in Inner Mongolia, bringing to life one of the late visionary Ai Weiwei’s vision. A hotel to consider if traveling to the far reaches of China.

The New Founding Member Experience

It’s live! It includes France, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, The UK, Ireland, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland) & The Netherlands, The US, Mexico, The Caribbean, Japan, Morocco, and a whole section dedicated to Italy.

All countries have the Hotel List link as well as a link to them all plotted on their own respective Google Map. Each map is fully up-to-date, including names that haven’t made it here yet. For Italy, there’s also links to the high-level things, guides to Venice and Florence, transportation 101, etc. And, I decided to add a link to download The Comprehensive Guide to Capri. Why not?

The goal is to make it easier for my most loyal subscribers to actually plan their dream trips. Value, is the name of this game! And as you’ll see with the Scotland itinerary below, I’m nothing in the world of travel planning without all my beloved hotels on a map.

You can find it below. I’m calling it Hotel Lists & Maps By Country, because I do not think a punchy name is the name of this game. I want you to know where and what it is at all times. If you’re already a paid subscriber, you can upgrade. If you’re not, a Founding Membership grants you all of the above and access to the archive for a full year.

Remember, these lists already live in the archive for paid subscribers, but this has them all organized by map. You do not need this upgrade. It’s only an extra offering to add true value in trip planning. It’s for those who have been hoping for something like this.

For fullest transparency, it looks like this:

Happy Hoteling, you Good People with Good Taste!

A Homebody with No Final Destination

I’ve never really felt this way before. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is. It’s neither positive nor negative but definitely not neutral. It’s an active feeling, but one of uncertainty. A new lens on optimism, tinged with reality.

Mostly, it’s strange knowing that in such a short time my life will be completely (voluntarily) upended, yet right now I’ve only thrown out my spoiled skincare. I’m working full-force on all the fronts and running errands like a resident of San Francisco. But also and mostly, I’ve been head-deep in getting my ducks in a row. There is so much to do for an American to get a visa to live in Italy.

This dream isn’t an easy one to fulfill.

In fact, it’s a total risk. There’s a true chance I won’t get a visa. I am both not a perfect candidate for any visa and a fantastic candidate for two visas.

Regardless, I have to sign a year-long lease in Italy to apply. It’s a commitment, one with many question marks. At least, I know I have half the year guaranteed living in Florence.

I know I’m doing the right thing because this is already really difficult but it still feels really worth it.

Thank gd I’m an optimist. And thank gd I had this one teacher all four years of high school, Señor Cruz, who would make us all wait outside the classroom for a few minutes and then as we entered we would recite “paciencia es la madre de todos los virtures.” Patience is the mother of all virtues.

It never used to be a strong suit, but the process with my dad in the last year changed that quickly and profoundly. I never thought that navigating such complex and confusing and downright awful systems would be such great training.

Now, my dad has a home and I learned how to wait in lines, on hold, talk to people like they are a Spice Girl in the year 1998, and really hold my own.

Again, thank gd. Because really, I vastly underestimated the bureaucracy and sheer complexity of the visa processes before I fully started it.

My fate in Italy will depend on about five different individuals, who I will just have to hope had good sex the night before and woke up on the right side of the bed and aren’t hungry and who…like me.

I really need these people to like me. I have to make quite the case for myself. And I am, and I will.

On the last day of February, I’ll be on the plane to Florence. The next day, I will get my keys to my first apartment. The day after that, I will start experiencing the city in a new way but I will also start waiting in a lot of lines at a lot of government buildings.

I’m going to go about this in the most difficult way in the hopes of showing the most effort. Without going into too much depth, the visa I think I am going to apply for only accepts 500 people worldwide each year. I need to come across as a silly choice not to have move to their country.

To put it feather-lightly, this has put glaring new perspective on the experience of immigration. I have so much empathy for so many in this country right now. I’m impressed by all my friends who have moved abroad and by all my foreign-born friends who have moved here. To be able to live and work where you want is not something to be taken lightly.

The thing that scares me the most is not knowing where home will be, exactly. Or when I will know, even.

And I’m a lifelong homebody. Unashamed – I’m simply easily amused, never have FOMO, and love to read.

But then as I’ve been processing this process and thinking about my life at-large, it’s made me think of how I think I will want to look back at my life at the end of it. I don’t have to stop being a homebody, but I do need to get out of my comfort zone.

First, right now, I have no choice. There is no sure way for me to get a visa, and there is no sure way for me to get a visa without a year-long lease. My rent in San Francisco was raised beyond my budget and I already gave my noticed and everything is booked and ready for me to arrive in Italy on my half birthday (if you’re new, definitely a thing).

But also, I write about hotels. Around the world. Yes, I specialize in Italy. But it appears as though that if I don’t get the visa, this is the year where I will be forced to not be a homebody and to travel at least six months of the year. I will get to take these trips I write about. I will have to work on the road, and call it an adventure. What a f-ing FORTUNATE position to be in.

The idea of this unknown life has always exhausted me in the past. I never envied travel creators who didn’t have a base, and honestly I still don’t. But I do envy my parent’s stories of spending a month in this random country and six weeks in another. I write itineraries in my mind and on this Substack that go to places I want to go. My rent in Florence will be substantially less than my rent is currently in San Francisco. My health insurance will be significantly less, etc, etc, etc. This is the year to do it, if I’m given the sign to do it. I just need good health.

If I have it my way, I won’t be on the road at least half of the year. I really, desperately, want to do this thing.

I’m going to go above and beyond on preparing for this visa. I’m going to make that application shine like the Sistine Chapel the day before the Jubilee. I’m going to try to put all cards in the favor of the bureaucrats liking me.

I’m going to give it my all in person in March. I’m going to give it my all in the details on the application. I’m going to arrive at the Italian Consulate in April with a visa application that shouldn’t, in good bureaucratic consciousness, be declined.

I’m also going to ask you for a favor.

For a variety of factors, that I can perhaps go into if you’d like, I have to make myself the most compelling applicant otherwise there’s a very good chance I will not get the visa. The good news is I think I am a really compelling applicant?

In making myself and Happy Hoteling simply irresistible, I need to show the bureaucrats that I genuinely positively contribute to both the culture and the economy of Italy.

So, if you’ve planned a trip to Italy and used my tips, suggestions, or recommendations, it would make my year (no exaggeration) if you left a comment on this post sharing where you went and hopefully how I helped you. I will be printing these and translating these, and they will be some of many papers in my big folder for the people in charge of my fate.

I need them to understand that I really, genuinely know and love their country and am not just another Millennial who wants to live la dolce vita because omg Italy is amazing. If you can help convey this, truly, I will forever remember your kindness.

I already miss my bed, but I’m excited to meet the me of six months from now. I have no idea what roads this year will take. Vai!

xMarissa

P.S. My mom thinks I open up too much on here, that I’m a tad too vulnerable. I like it when other people are, and I have always chalked this up to a Milennial vs. Boomer thing. But, give it to me straight – do you like open and honest and wish I did more of it, or do you like a bit of a fairytale? First off, no judgement, but also, I can’t see who voted.

A 3-Week Bucket List Trip Through Scotland By Train

From the 50 trips I want to take

A reader asked a great question, which is how I plan a trip like this, where there’s a lot of legs and it’s dependent on special hotels close to train stations.

I make a Google Map. I always make a Google Map. I don’t know how to do anything without it.

I first put in all of my top choice hotels in the country on the map. And then ScotRail served me well, with really handy images of both regions of all of their routes. It shows all the train stations.