.svg)
Discovering the story behind a blank page
"Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller."
For DeSalvio travel, we use Ibn Battuta’s quote often with our clients. Storytelling means writing it down, conceptualising an idea into something we hold and upon which we build. After reading for many years, Robert started to wonder about the books in which these memories are written down. For him, as an artist, looking at objects and ideas create wonder. In his case, his question started with how a book actually was made. This opened a completely different world for him.
Walking into the world of bookbinding, he found the same things he looks for in music. Precision. Beauty. Patience. A connection between the person creating something and the person receiving it.
A handmade book does not allow mistakes to disappear. Every fold, every stitch, every decision affects the final result. For Robert, this became more than a craft. It became a way to train focus, something that directly influences his work at the piano and something he learned extensively from Henk Linde, one of Holland's top restorers, whose extensive work has been embraced by museums like the Rijksmuseum, the Dutch National Gallery.
When you write in a handmade book, it also feels different. These are not pages you quickly fill and forget. Many of Robert’s clients use them as memory books for their children, writing down important moments, decisions, and stories they want to leave behind.
That is what makes these books special.
Creating a journal for a DeSalvio journey
When Marisa asked Robert to create journals for DeSalvio Travel clients, the idea immediately connected with the philosophy behind the company.
The process begins long before the first word is written. A handmade book can take around 50 individual steps. The paper, the thread, the binding style, and the materials all change the final object.
For the DeSalvio journals, the choice was to use Italian endpapers. During a visit to Bergamo, Robert found special Italian paper that matched the idea behind the project. Bringing it home was not exactly easy. Some pieces did not fit in the suitcase and needed to be cut down before travelling.
The books are created using a case-binding technique, where the text block and the cover are created separately before being joined together. It allows more freedom with materials and design.
But bookbinding has many traditions. Japanese binding, Coptic structures, Byzantine-Greek techniques, and medieval European methods all tell different stories. For future DeSalvio journeys, Robert already imagines creating different books connected to the destination itself. A Japanese-bound journal for Japan. A Coptic-inspired book for Egypt.
The book becomes part of the journey before the journey even begins.
Slowing down in a world that moves quickly
Travel today often moves at a very fast pace. We take hundreds of photographs, save emails, and store everything digitally. But writing something down asks us to stop.
A handwritten note requires a moment of thought. You decide what is important enough to put on the page.
Robert keeps two notebooks himself. One leather notebook for ideas and daily thoughts. Another small cloth-bound notebook next to the piano for musical ideas that appear during practice.
Sometimes he writes something down and does not look at it for months. Then later, he finds that thought again and it becomes useful and inspiring in a completely different way.
This is also what DeSalvio Travel hopes clients experience. The itinerary itself is digital because that is practical. Flights, reservations, and logistics belong on a phone.
The journal serves a different purpose. It is for the evening after a remarkable day. A concert that surprised you. A meal you still remember. A painting in a museum that stayed with you. A conversation with a guide.
Writing turns the moment into a memory.
True luxury is attention
For DeSalvio Travel, the handmade journal represents something larger than a gift.
It represents how the company approaches travel.
A generic notebook can hold words. A generic itinerary can move someone from one place to another. But the details are what create a personal experience.
The same care that goes into selecting paper for a book goes into selecting the right hotel, guide, restaurant, or cultural experience for a client.
In a world where many interactions are becoming automated, genuine attention has become rare.
A handmade book carries the evidence that someone took time to create something specifically for another person. The pages were folded by hand. The binding was stitched carefully. The materials were chosen with intention.
Years later, when a client opens that journal again, the value will not come from the object itself. It will come from everything that happened inside it.The places visited and the thoughts written down. The memories that were kept instead of lost.
Marisa DeSalvio
CEO DeSalvio Travel
_Black.png)