Moving beyond landmarks and itineraries...
The Aria Vale Collection is a series of illustrated literary travel essays exploring cities through the eyes of a young solo traveller. Moving beyond landmarks and itineraries, Aria notices the people, rituals, conversations and small details that give each place its character. Along the way, each city reveals a little more about Aria herself — her family, her past, and the experiences that have shaped the way she sees the world.
Book 1: Venice
Venice is a city everyone thinks they know.
Aria Vale has travelled enough to know that the obvious things are rarely the whole story.
So she slows down. She takes the vaporetto. Gets lost. Waits. Watches the light change across water and windows. Talks to strangers. Learns about the things beneath the postcard version of the city.
Venice is not a guide to what to see. It is an invitation to notice what happens when you stop trying to see everything.
Book 2: Bangkok
Bangkok does not whisper.
For Aria Vale, returning to a familiar city means noticing how much can still surprise her.
A jewellery fair leads to a stone with a story. A minor accident becomes an unexpected lesson in care. Green spaces interrupt the traffic. Friends arrive, dinners stretch late, and familiar journeys look different when taken another way.
Bangkok is a collection of observations about contrast, return and the strange intimacy of knowing a city without ever quite possessing it.
Book 3: Sydney
Aria Vale is used to arriving alone.
Sydney is different.
Her twin brother Nick has built a life here: a wife, children, a house and the kind of roots Aria has never wanted for herself. Around that familiar family are the unfamiliar details of Australia—bare feet, birds, back gardens, ferries, local rituals and a city whose beauty its residents sometimes seem not to notice.
In Sydney, looking closely at a city also means looking more closely at home, family and the different ways two people can belong.
Book 4: Tokyo
Coming Soon...
Coming soon…