Travelling...

I'm glad to hear that you have survived your long journey Antonio! I hope you get some sleep tonight and feel better by tomorrow.

You definitely don't need a camera! Your description of the dawn light on the sea at Salerno provides as clear a picture as any photo.

A little more on 'travel' language... 'Travel' is often used as a verb, 'I travelled from Sant'Arsenio to Turin'. It can also be used as an uncountable noun to mean 'travelling' or the general activity of moving from place to place, for example in the saying 'travel broadens the mind'. This example is a 'fixed' bit of language; if any of the words are changed the saying sounds wrong (except to say the opposite: 'travel narrows the mind'). Another example is,'he returned home to Sant'Arseno after years of foriegn travel.'

In contrast, 'travels', the plural noun, means moving from place to place over a period of time, 'did you visit Jakarta during your travels in South-East Asia?'.

A 'journey', on the other hand, is the time spent and distance covered in going from one place to another. I think this is the word you need in your sentence, 'They've all finished their journey (not 'travel') now'.

A 'voyage' means the same as 'journey', but by sea. And finally, a 'trip' is (usually) a short journey, or one where you will spend a very short time in the other place. For example, 'we're going on a weekend trip to France next month'.

There are lots of fixed phrases in English on the topic of travel. When someone is soon leaving on a journey, you can say 'have a good trip!', 'have a safe journey!' or 'bon voyage!'. When school children go on educational visits with their teacher and classmates this is called a 'school trip'. Clara, my daughter, is going on a school trip tomorrow and has carefully selected her packed lunch: a prawn sandwich, a piece of cheese, a bag of potato crisps, a cereal bar, a small bag of jelly sweets and a bottle of water.

I hope you've recovered from your long journey by the time you read this!

Rachel

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