Welcome back to GO! Interviews. This week we are proud to feature the talented travel blogger Suzy Guese. Suzy is looking forward to exploring the back alleys of Florence, Italy, snapping photos and sharing her extensive travel experience. In between packing and picturing mouthfuls of gelato, she has been kind enough to sit down and share her journey thus far with the GO! Overseas community. Enjoy!

GO!: Hi Suzy, thanks for joining us today. Shall we start with a brief introduction?

Suzy: Without getting too philosophical, my name is Suzy Guese and I am a travel writer/blogger. I am leaving for Italy tomorrow, but I am currently in my home state of Colorado. I am planning on living in a part of the world for three months at a time, traveling and writing. Italy is my first stop. My main motivation behind this slow travel style is to truly get to know a place as much as possible by living it day to day. I travel to be changed by what I see, what I experience, who I meet, and how I get there.

GO!: You have been traveling since a very young age. How has your travel philosophy evolved?

Suzy: Since my first flight at 3 months old, I have been on the move. I used to sit in the back of a Suburban pinching my brothers and sisters on long car rides across the United States. I was deemed “the red ant” for my pinching and flaming hair. I would say my travel philosophy has changed only somewhat from those car rides. I travel to discover the passions, frustrations, hilarity, and emotion behind every destination or road experience. If I have to throw in a little personality to make these aspects come about, I will for the sake of travel. It is an opportunity that warrants openness, patience (something I lack), and the packing of passion in that suitcase.

GO!: How did your blog, Suzy Guese, come about and what are your goals for the project?

Suzy: My site was born after being homeless, without a job, and in search of direction in Italy last summer. I had just graduated from college and took a job as an au pair. Set in the middle of nowhere in Italy, I arrived to a hallway as my room and a lukewarm welcome from the family. I left the position, knowing it wasn’t for me and realizing what I truly wanted, to write and travel. I knocked on the door of my old host parents in Florence whom I lived with when I studied abroad in the city. They offered me a roof over my head and a place to write. And so my site was born on a busy street in Florence, serving as an answer to my post-collegiate floundering and a venue for others to flounder with me.

My goal in starting to write for a larger audience has been to inspire, encourage, discuss, and facilitate travel in any way I can. Mental travel is free, minus the Internet connection. I hope to develop my site as a place to do all of these things through written word, photos and video.

GO!: What do you wish to accomplish through your travels and writing?

Suzy exploring Italy.

Suzy: So much can be gained by studying, working, volunteering, or just traveling outside the comforts of home. I hope to reverse travel notions that are unfounded. I hope to leave people with a discussion. I hope to give people breaks from their day if they can’t travel. I hope to pass on my tips and learned travel lessons. I hope by positively presenting travel, readers will be changed in some way.

I try not to exclude my audience to one type of person. My Grandma reads my posts so I would say I have a wide range. Young, old, stationary, on the go, I believe mental and physical travel go hand in hand. Obviously being younger, my travel outlook might appeal more to younger travelers.

Rather than just writing on what to see, where to eat, and what to do, I try to incorporate the metaphysical aspects to travel such as the loneliness of solo travel, the hesitation of purchasing a plane ticket, or capturing some travel conversation that marked me forever. Targeting any audience takes a great deal of work. There are down days when I think no one is reading, but then I get an amazing comment that sets me straight again. I have stayed motivated by not letting others tell me what I am doing is foolish or impractical.

GO!: A quick internet search reveals hundreds of popular travel blogs in every possible niche. Why do you think this form of blogging has become so popular?

Suzy: I think it is a dream many people share, travel the world and tell people about your experiences at the same time. Many of the travel blogs I read are men and women leaving their humdrum jobs to travel. I think a lot of people are unsatisfied and want to see what else is out there.

I have tried to separate myself from others by creating different and unique posts that, I hope, are relatable and thought provoking. I also pack in my sarcastic personality to my writing, which I think differentiates me somewhat. Oh and I have red hair. Natural red heads will be extinct in 200 years. Think about it. Some travel blogs are more journals, describing what they did each day from noon until night. While those are all fine and well, most cannot picture a place if you just tell it. You can have to create it for the reader.

The travel blogging community is extremely welcoming. Some of the biggest names in the industry have been nothing but helpful to me by allowing me to guest post on their site or passing along seasoned tips about running a travel site. If you start the conversation, most writers and blogggers will keep it going with you and help get the word out about your site.

GO!: Do you feel that travel blogs, such as yours, have replaced the need for large scale travel publications (e.g. Lonely Planet)?

Suzy: I don’t think travel blogs replace guidebooks, but they certainly can be an online wealth of information. You could read an impersonal account of Barcelona or find a post written by someone who lived in the city for years. You can follow blogs and sites that you think travel the way you do. It’s almost like having someone out there that knows what you want to see and do to a T. Guidebooks are great for all around information, but the travel blog may tell you about a place or experience someone had, a place you would never grabbed off the bookshelf if you hadn’t had some sort of personal connection with a post.

GO!: Many perceive travel writing as a hobby as opposed to an actual job. Is this true? Has there been anything surprising about the occupation?

A new adventure awaits!

Suzy: I wish it were an endless vacation! Most of my time is spent similar to those with 9 to 5 jobs, in front of the computer, writing, researching, and chatting with other travel fans on twitter. The travel aspect can certainly be similar to a vacation, but there is always hard earned work behind it. Travel writing can go in any direction, with a wealth of venues to take you there. Most will tell you to get a standard office job, but with the opportunities out there in travel writing, you can work from anywhere, at any time, as long as you have a good Internet connection.

GO!: What impact, if any, has travel writing had on your relationships with your friends and family?

Suzy: I certainly don’t have as much time to just hang around with friends and family. I maintain my own website in addition to writing other articles for various online publications. When you work for yourself, your hours tend to be longer than the standard job. Also, as I get ready to leave many friends and family behind for travel, it is difficult to go, but at the same time, I wouldn’t do anything else. Sure I’ll miss my dogs, but the connections to be made out there are plentiful and appealing. I have that friend and family support, making leaving for long periods of time easier.

GO!: It is June 3rd, 2030. Where are you and what are you doing?

Suzy: What a question! I feel like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally lamenting, “But I’m going to be 40!”. Movie quotes aside, I suspect I will still be traveling around, writing and filming. I wouldn’t mind living in a beach apartment on the Costa Verde of Sardinia. It’s so beautiful that it would distract me from my old age.

GO!: Any last words?

Suzy: I have a plane to catch. So should you! Get out there are and go. And thank you so much for having me here.