Home is a Feeling

This is the 14th post of a guest series. We ask friends and colleagues to share with us what the expression to “feel at home” means to them. We believe that to truly enjoy a place, you need to really experience it, to make yourself at home. This means different things for different people, but it is an essential part of our lives, both as travelers and travel professionals. The idea came from a post I published in March 2010 and that you can read here.

Home is a feeling

Home is a feeling, is everywhere you feel comfortable, loved, respected, reassured, free.

Home, for me, is a table ready for breakfast in the morning: a neat tablecloth, a cup, a spoon, a tea bag and two cookies. It can be my mother’s caring and loving act, or it can be my sister’s thoughtful gesture, done to make me start the day with a smile. When I lived alone for 5 weeks, a few years ago, I used to set the table for breakfast the evening before: the first reason was to save precious minutes in the morning, but I reckon it was also to recreate a home feeling at the dawn of the day.

Home is my teddy bear, Tato. It was my first friend: I sleep hugging Tato during the winter, to keep me warm in my huge double bed, or I gently lay it on the ground during the summer, stealing a glance at it before closing my eyes to sleep.

Home is my favourite walk, wonderful and inspiring in every season. I could do it even with blinded eyes, I know every bend, every root coming out from the ground. When I want to catch up with my thoughts, I simply walk my way through this country road and everything falls at its place.

Home is a bedroom with a view, my bedroom with my favourite view: the cypresses on the far away hills, our orchard, my father cutting the grass, my dog, Kira, running as a puppy and now slowly pacing up and down her territory. Small stories unravelling in front of my eyes and immediately bringing me home.

Home is my kitchen, my tools, home is where I can cook for someone, spreading my love along with simple and fresh ingredients.

This is one of the easiest recipe you can choose, though this is the flavour that immediately brings me home.

Maybe it is the fact that it so simple to make, maybe it’s due to the act of peeling the apple, that reminds me of my grandma’s hands, peeling my fruit in my inflatable wedding tent childhood.

Or maybe, it is all related to the warm bowl you wrap yourself around, sitting on a sofa and savouring that moment when you can finally call it a day.

This is my recipe for a reassuring and delicious bowl of stewed fruit, slightly spiced but definitely light, the perfect treat to indulge yourself in the evening.

Stewed apples

Ingredients:

• 1 apple
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 crushed cardamom pods
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 handful raisins

Peel the apple and slice it finely. Put it in a small pot with the cinnamon stick, the crushed cardamom pods, a tablespoon of brown sugar and a handful of raisins.

Cover the fruit with water and let it simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes, or until the apple is soft and almost all the liquid has been absorbed.

Extra flavours: you can add the grated peel of one orange or one lemon to add a citrus flavour. You can simmer the apple with a vanilla pod for a sweeter result or even add a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a delicious dessert.