Traveling is one of my absolute favorite things to do. The most recent trip I went on was last Fall, when I got to spend two weeks in Rome and Tuscany. It was November, which is Italy’s rainy season. So, I was often accompanied in my wanderings by a steady downpour, a trusty pineapple-patterned umbrella, and Jannabi’s “dreams, books, power and walls”, the perfect rainy-day song. It was indescribably wonderful.

I think of that trip often now, and with a pang of sadness. I don’t know when it will be safe for adventuring again. It could be months. It could be years.

For the time being, I am consoling my grieving traveler’s heart with music, specifically the music I wander to. I listen to the songs below and I see the streets I’ve walked in the past and envision the roads I’ll travel in the future. For now, I can only take a trip in my mind, and sometimes if I’m lucky, down the block, masked-up and dodging other humans like a real-life game of Pac Man. I dream that one day though, I’ll listen to these tunes as I gaze at vistas a world away. I hope you too can take a trip with these songs, in your imagination, and someday not too far in the future, in reality.