Insider: Lodestars Anthology

With its calm and romantic approach to travel journalism, the tri-annual magazine-meets-travel diary Lodestars Anthology  is the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday city life.

Each issue is dedicated to a single country or region, and for their fourth issue, editor Liz Schaffer and her team have travelled the length and breadth of Italy. We asked Liz to fill us in on the process of putting it all together.

In the making of this issue I…
Very seriously considered running away to Italy and moving into a villa on the Amalfi Coast. Ideally in winter. With some sort of typewriter.

Drank
More glasses of Aperol Spritz than any one person really should. I threw in a few Hugos for good measure (the best are from Le Sirenuse in Positano).

Read
Recipe books, followed by more recipe books and then a few more recipe books. When travelling through the land of food little else really interests you.

Got sidetracked by
Future Lodestars Anthology issues – with Sweden and Canada also coming out this year, Stockholm and the Yukon proved rather distracting.

Following the launch of #TheNordicCookbook by #MagnusNilsson we felt it was time to share some of @lucyshena’s #Sweden photographs – even though we still have an #Italy #magazine to complete. This #seaside snap is from #Smogen on the #WestCoast, all hail the #sea and #Scandi scenes.

A photo posted by Lodestars Anthology (@lodestarsanthology) on Oct 27, 2015 at 1:45pm PDT

Argued about
Whether or not speed limits actually apply in Italy.

Went to
Tuscany, the Lakes, Piemonte and the Amalfi Coast – and our contributors went even further!

Learned
That there is nothing wrong with screaming “piano piano” when hurtling downhill in the Italian Alps. And that you should always buy good quality olive oil.

Was excited about
Every dish that was put in front of me in Italy. I now think what I feel for pasta is actual love.

Was surprised by
How easy it is to feel at home when very far away from home. And just how much Aperol I could consume.

Couldn’t stop laughing at
Our attempts to get a regular-sized Fiat down Italian-sized lanes.

And everyone should buy a copy because…
It’s a magazine all about Italy that has given us wanderlust … and we wrote it!

Illustrations by Saara Karppinen

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