The Many Faces of Traveler
ByKeith Bellows
February 18, 2014
2 min readIt was March 2012, and I was sitting at a cafe in Milan’s Piazza del Duomo, an immense square that spreads like an apron from the foot of the city’s cathedral, a Gothic marvel.
The piazza was swarming with fans of the city’s beloved soccer club, which at that moment was playing against perennial rival Barcelona. Fans streamed from bar to bar, braying for their teams and lustily singing fight songs.
At another time I would have scavenged a ticket and joined the pandemonium. However, I was in Milan for the launch of Traveler‘s new Italian edition, Touring. When I leaf through a copy of Touring now, I think of my Italian meal with editorial director Silvestro Serra and some of his staff–and that Milan moment on the piazza.
Similarly, our Chinese edition reminds me of being led by our Beijing-based editors into their city, to shops where I bought woven slippers for my kids. And when I read the Editor’s Note of Niloufer Venkatraman, Traveller India‘s editor in chief, I can hear her telling stories over lunch in Delhi about hiking the Western Ghats and Nepal–places I dream of one day visiting.
Traveler publishes 14 international editions in 12 languages. I read–or look at, when there’s a language barrier–them all. They are a window on the world, reflecting the personalities, interests, dream destinations, and visual expressions of their readerships.
Our foreign siblings often run our stories, and I have long wanted to run some of their best work. Finally, we’ve done it with “Made in Italy,” from our friends in Milan. Our global colleagues sharpen our international insights and, through countless contributions to our thinking and reporting, help us all deliver on our motto: “Nobody Knows This World Better.”
Keith Bellows is editor-in-chief of National Geographic Traveler magazine. Follow his story on Twitter @KeithBellowNG.
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