5 Perfect Days...?

Hanya Yanagihara wrote the article, "5 Perfect Days in...Tuscany", while some may like to have every last detail of a trip planned out I have always found that a bit of budge leads to a more fulfilling and enjoyable trip, and also in the end a less stressful one. The article begins by stating "The Challenge", essentially to see and experience all of Tuscany in a mere 5 days, this is understandable but then "The Solution" is given and Yanagihara basically tells the reader that they need to go through a travel specialist like, Maria Teresa Berdondini; this solution seems a bit narrow in scope and limited in possibility. The article is presented in a a day-by-day form, but it gives away so much detail that it's overload, instead of giving me just enough a taste that my appetite is whetted and wanting more I feel like I've engorged myself on a rich meal, I don't need to go back for more, I've already had my fill. In addition to the heavy load of details the majority of the article follows and adheres to a strict time schedule, if life were perfect and trains always came on time, and alarm clocks always went off when they were supposed to this might be fine, a bit boring but fine none the less, however this is not the case. Trains come late, or more often is the case in Italy they don't come at all because there is yet another strike, people miss flights and take wrong turns, life is perfect so how is it a realistic expectation that people stick to a "perfect" time schedule? I think it's best to leave a bit of wiggle room, allowing for the unpredictable is less stressful and that is often when the greatest moments happen, the unplanned ones.

The entire article isn't planning and time tables though, there is some very clever and descriptive language that is actually quite applicable to the reader. One such example occurs in day 2 when she is providing a bit of history in describing the Medici family, "once one of the richest and most powerful families in Europe, the Medicis - bankers by trade, despots by design, and tastemakers by ambition - have no contemporary equivalent. To properly replicate their power, influence and welath, you'd have to combine the artistic patronage of the Rubells or the de Menils with the business acumen of the Rockefeelrs, add the political savvy of the Kennedys and the brute force of perfaps the Soprans, and you'd still fall short". If that doesn't paint a clear a picture as ever of the Medicis I don't know what kind of language would, it's highly descriptive in a way that is still understandable.

At the end of the piece their is a section for "How to Book" again mentioning the travel agency, leaving me with a bit of an odd taste, is the piece biased to outline this travel guides itinerary? Are these the places that they are hired to show people? Were these really the things to do and sights to see if you want "5 perfect days'?