Pausanias' Guide to Greece

I've been thinking of visits in foreign places lately. My imagination has been working on places I have some knowledge of. Top on my visit list right now is Ecuador. I should look for a novel which is set there. I'm reading one set in Chile now. When I get closer to the planning stage I'll look at some good travel guides.

Great travel literature enlivens me to a destination. Learning about the area, getting to know the cultures of people associated with them personally and by the way of written works gives me joy.

The more I learn the greater my pleasure. I follow my bliss. I follow my nose.

Travel literature has been around for a long time. You have hear of Marco Polos work. Before the Polos was Pausanias, and honest re-counter of his travels and wide interests. He was a novas antiquarian, an armature naturalist, a dabbler in mysteries. He was interested in history, Mythology, geography, and culture. He was attracted by the obscure, the unusual and the exquisite. He was also a bit of a scholar and an adventurer. I think of him as my kind of traveler.
The wealthy citizens of ancient Rome carried his works when they visit Greece.