Experiments
This tour has involved two experiments for me. The one I'm on now is trying out new cities, which I do fairly often. The other, however, was staying for a full month in Genoa. Normally I change cities every week, but I've had so many good experiences there that I wanted to see what it was like to really live someplace for so long.
The first experiment of breaking new ground has had its ups and downs, most noticeably last week in Oristano. The second experiment, however, worked. Not just in the fact that I had good busking experiences in Genoa, but that after a month I was still mostly playing to people who hadn't seen me before: I was still getting lots of questions and my tips and CD sales did not reflect over-familiarity.
For the past dozen tours I've limited myself to a single week in any given city*. In most cases I've limited myself to one week every two years, not repeating any location in consecutive trips, but that no longer seems necessary. It makes me happy to think on future tours and the idea of spending a little more time and some of my favorite places.
*Except Rome, where I spent a lot of time in 2007 but is so big and well-touristed that it didn't seem a fair example.
The first experiment of breaking new ground has had its ups and downs, most noticeably last week in Oristano. The second experiment, however, worked. Not just in the fact that I had good busking experiences in Genoa, but that after a month I was still mostly playing to people who hadn't seen me before: I was still getting lots of questions and my tips and CD sales did not reflect over-familiarity.
For the past dozen tours I've limited myself to a single week in any given city*. In most cases I've limited myself to one week every two years, not repeating any location in consecutive trips, but that no longer seems necessary. It makes me happy to think on future tours and the idea of spending a little more time and some of my favorite places.
*Except Rome, where I spent a lot of time in 2007 but is so big and well-touristed that it didn't seem a fair example.