We spend weeks preparing for a journey.

We choose a destination, compare itineraries, check the weather and pack carefully, imagining the landscapes we are about to discover.

But there is one question we rarely ask before we leave.

Who might we meet?

Perhaps because we assume that the most memorable part of a journey lies in the places themselves. A beautiful coastline. A mountain path. A village untouched by time.

Yet when we think back to the journeys that have stayed with us, it is often something else that returns first.

A conversation shared over dinner.

Someone who walked beside us for a few hours.

A stranger whose story quietly became part of our own.

Some of the most meaningful encounters in our lives are not planned. They happen because, for a brief moment, our paths cross with someone else's.

When we spoke with Silvia Salmeri, founder of Destinazione Umana, she shared the question that has guided the project since its beginnings:

"La domanda che facevamo non era dove vuoi andare, ma chi vuoi conoscere?"
("The question we asked wasn't 'Where do you want to go?' but 'Who do you want to meet?'")

It is a subtle shift in perspective, yet it changes the way we think about travelling. Instead of placing the destination at the centre of the journey, it places the people we might encounter along the way.

This story follows one of Destinazione Umana's journeys through the Aeolian Islands, where travelling together leaves room for conversations, shared moments and unexpected encounters.

Travelling Together

Travelling has not always been about collecting places.

For centuries, journeys unfolded through encounters. Pilgrims relied on the hospitality of strangers. Merchants exchanged stories alongside goods. Artists, sailors and explorers carried ideas from one community to another. A journey was as much about the people met along the way as the road itself.

Today, it has become surprisingly easy to travel without truly meeting anyone. We book online, check in through an app, follow digital maps and return home with hundreds of photographs but very few conversations.

Perhaps this is why experiences that create space for genuine encounters feel increasingly meaningful.

Not because they promise transformation.

But because they remind us that every journey is also a meeting between lives.

The Aeolian Islands, Shared One Step at a Time

Among the experiences created by Destinazione Umana, one journey captures this idea with particular simplicity.

Across the Aeolian Islands, days unfold between hiking volcanic trails, sailing from one island to another, sharing meals on board and watching the changing light over the sea. The pace is set as much by the wind as by the itinerary.

The destination matters, of course.

But the rhythm of the journey leaves room for something else.

Conversations that begin while walking.

Silences shared at sea.

Meals enjoyed around the same table on board.

The people who begin as strangers gradually find themselves sharing the same rhythm of life.

Throughout the week, the boat becomes more than a way of travelling between islands.

It becomes a temporary home.

Cabins are small, meals are shared and most of the day unfolds in common spaces. Without trying to, everyone begins to contribute to the rhythm of life on board.

Perhaps this is why conversations happen so naturally.

Not because anyone is looking for them.

But because sharing time also means sharing ordinary moments.

The Unexpected Companion

There is something quietly reassuring about travelling with people we have never met before.

Without the expectations of everyday life, conversations often begin from a different place.

There are no roles to maintain.

No familiar routines waiting at the end of the day.

Only the quiet rhythm of walking, sailing and living together for a while.

Some conversations last only a few minutes.

Others continue long after the journey ends.

Not every encounter becomes a lasting friendship.

It doesn't have to.

Sometimes a single conversation remains with us for years, not because it changed our lives dramatically, but because it offered a different way of seeing the world.

Making Space for Encounters

What Destinazione Umana offers is not simply an itinerary.

It creates the conditions for encounters to happen.

By slowing the pace, travelling in small groups and allowing life on board to unfold naturally, the journey becomes something more than a sequence of places to visit.

The islands remain breathtaking.

The sea remains unforgettable.

The walks remain beautiful.

Yet they slowly become the backdrop to something less predictable.

The people who happen to be sharing the same journey.

More Than a Destination

When we remember a journey, we often begin by describing the place.

Then, almost without noticing, we start talking about the people.

The woman who shared breakfast with us every morning.

The conversation during a long walk.

The laughter around the table after a day at sea.

The stranger whose story stayed with us long after we had forgotten the name of a beach or the view from a summit.

Perhaps destinations give us a reason to leave home.

But it is people who give our journeys their lasting shape.

And perhaps the people we remember most are rarely the ones we set out to find.

About Destinazione Umana

Founded in 2014 by Silvia Salmeri, Destinazione Umana was born from a simple but radical question: not Where do you want to go?, but Who would you like to meet? Over the years, the project has developed a distinctive approach to travel centred on human encounters and meaningful connections. Today, its experiences invite travellers to discover places through shared time, conversations and the people they meet along the way.

Editor's Note

At Still Sunday House, we are drawn to projects that remind us that places are never experienced in isolation. They are shaped by the people who inhabit them, welcome us and, sometimes unexpectedly, walk beside us for a while.

Image credits: Courtesy of Silvia Corbelli