Rebecca Birch, whose work I like, wrote in her blog several years ago of how a writer may approach travel with a different attitude to normal human beings. We have a habit of storing up experiences that may come in useful in our work.
Personally I find that my camera helps. The great boon of digital photography is practically to eliminate the marginal cost of your pictures. No more worrying whether you can justify the use of film.
So when I am wandering around I take a picture of anything that looks interesting, even if I don’t know what it is, together with numerous landscape shots that will help me remember the setting. Then, when I get home, I do my research and find out what I have photographed. Usually, between reference books and the internet, I can find out. I find this also helps me to remember, the next time I see something like it.
Even on a guided tour, it will often prove difficult to take in everything that you are told, but photographs will help you recall it. The best tour guides throw in all sorts of local colour: history, myth, prejudice, manner of speaking. All of these have their potential uses.
Not everything can be photographed. It may be a sound that characterises a place, sometimes a smell, sometimes a taste or a texture. But at least, if you have documented one sensory impression, it may help you to recall others.
My two example photographs above are both from the town of Taormina, Sicily. The second is a detail of the first. Taormina is most famous for its ancient theatre, but there is so much more to be seen than what is obvious.
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