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Tilted Map

Tilted Map

Travel, sustainability & life between two cultures

Is this a travel blog or a sustainability blog?

It’s both! Wanting to see the world and caring about keeping it in good shape? I think those are pretty compatible interests.

And it turns out, I’m not alone. A lot of you, my readers, have written to say that you found me via one topic and then stuck around because of the other. Thank you for that!

I already had a degree in Journalism, and had been living abroad and travel blogging for years when I went back to school in Italy to get my masters in Sustainable Business and Energy. When I finished, I wanted to combine the two – travel and sustainability.

That’s how Tilted Map was born.

I’m still figuring out to how to put it all together – so if you have questions or suggestions, I’d love to hear them! Whether it’s a brand to test, a book to read, or a destination that’s doing something uniquely sustainable. I might not have the answer, but I spend a lot of time testing products, calling experts, and tracking down answers for this blog. (It is my full-time job, after all.)

I’ve summarized a lot of those answers on this page, which lists all my favorite sustainable brands and travel resources.

And I used to spend a lot of time traveling, too. But of course, 2020 has given me some time to focus on the sustainability side, while staying home more than I have in years.

I lived abroad for five years, including three in Italy. I fell in love with a lot of aspects of Italian culture during that time. (My husband, who I met doing Capoeira in Shanghai, is Italian, and we got married in Milan.) So on this site, you’ll also find a lot of writing about US and Italian cultural differences (which, of course, includes a lot about food) plus travel inspiration and detailed reviews of sustainable and plastic-free products.

What’s with the name?

Tilted Map is meant to mean a different way of looking at something familiar.

I’ve loved staring at maps for as long as I can remember, and in my my apartment in Milan, I had a huge, wooden map of the world that took up an entire wall. It was handmade by a friend, and I spent hours looking at that thing. But no matter how many times I tried to straighten it, it was always… Tilted.

More About Ketti

Hi, I’m Ketti – the writer behind this site! I started blogging in 2014, when I moved to China with a job teaching English to 300 university students, a side-hustle as a freelance magazine writer, and just one word of Mandarin.

That turned into a lot more than just one year of travel: After China, there were three years in Italy, a desk job in France, and summers guiding students around Nicaragua and the Caribbean! (With healthy stints as a nomad with a backpack in between.)

Two of my favorite things to write about: 1. What I’ve learned from life as a long-term expat (especially about Italian culture and Italian food culture) and 2. Eco-friendly products that change habits, and ways to travel more sustainably.

I grew up in the mountains of Northwest Montana and have always been a nature lover – that’s part of why I’ve been writing about sustainability and the environment, as well as travel, ever since I started this blog.

Adding a note to a box on a hike in Alaska.

But since I’ve found ways to travel to 40+ countries since college, what you’ll find here isn’t all about Italy or all about eco-friendly travel. It’s about exploring the world! You’ll find stories and photos to scratch your wanderlust, tales of adventure and of culture shock, joy, frustration, love and, hopefully, inspiration. (Even for when you can’t travel.)

Ketti Wilhelm, author of Tilted Map travel and sustainability blog, a blonde woman shown in a close-up, black and white photo. ©KettiWilhelm2021
Greetings from Montana, where I grew up! (Please excuse my unwashed camping face.)

What to read next? How about something…

…Funny:
  • Ship’s Log: An Adventure in Cambodia I Didn’t Mean to Have
  • Schoolin’: All about teaching college English in China
…Daring:
  • Cripple’s Guide to International Travel: Backpacking 10 Countries on Crutches
  • Teaching “Under the Dome” (and luckily not from a Chinese jail)
…Romantic:
  • We Live in a Van Down by the River! (With lots of beautiful New Zealand pics)
  • We Got Married! (And probably forgot to tell you…)
…Useful:
  • Plastic-Free Products You’ll Actually WANT to Use (Hey, I do)
  • Books to make you feel like you’re on an adventure, even when you’re stuck at home
  • How to Eat in Italy – Table manners, differences between the courses & more
  • What tech do you really NEED for travel? (I asked an expert for advice on VPNs & Password Managers)
  • After three years in Italy, this is the most useful thing I learned: Why most Italians aren’t overweight, despite eating all that pizza and pasta

What I Mean by “Sustainable Travel”

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved travel. But I know the travel industry, and our individual choices as travelers, have a huge impact on the environment. It’s mostly a negative impact, but it doesn’t have to be. I’m dedicated to the idea that there are better ways for travelers to do what we love. 

(If you want to know more, I go into more detail in this post about travel and what this blog is for, and how I grew up.)

To me, “sustainable travel” isn’t just about eco-lodges in the rainforest. There are greener, less harmful and more sustainable ways to do every type of travel.

I’m also a big believer in the idea that our small choices really do matter. It’s an idea that in the US we call “voting with your dollar” for what you want to see in the world.

A lot of dollars flow through the travel industry.

One of my goals is to create a much-needed resource to help readers spend their travel budgets with companies who do their best to protect the environment. (Because in every industry – airlines, hotel chains, cruise ships and beyond – not all companies are the same.)

How I Got Here

Officially, I started working in sustainability after completing my master’s degree in Sustainable Business and Energy at Università Bocconi in Milan. At the end of the program, I moved to France to work for an energy and climate change research company. And while I’m passionate about both climate and energy, I was soon reminded that working from an office every day just wasn’t for me.

So I’m back to blogging full-time – and I’ll keep adding more in-depth posts that my readers can use to keep traveling while improving their environmental impact.

For more, please see my Work With Me page. Or if you have questions, please get in touch.

Sitting in a bathtub on a mountainside in Alaska (while hiking the site of an old mine and town). ©KettiWilhelm2019
A place to relax in Alaska.

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Same hand on the hip, elbow out. Perhaps fewer f*c Same hand on the hip, elbow out. Perhaps fewer f*cks given a couple decades ago vs. last week, but apparently this is my mountain pose.  The Instagram experts tell me I’m supposed to share things that are “useful” to my “audience.” Well, this is not that. Except maybe it’s a reminder to remember how little you cared what people thought of you when you were 4.  I mean, look at that sassy expression. Just doing what I do, feeling what I feel, and not really caring about smiling for the camera. Can we still get away with that today? 🤔
Currently daydreaming about walking through these Currently daydreaming about walking through these gorgeous green lungs on Maui a couple months back.  Distracting me from:  - Finishing up more Hawaii blog posts,  - Processing a week full of inspiring sessions with @deanmouliaa (who walked around the globe… yes, walked), @tomorrowsair_ (making travel more climate friendly!!), and @the.nomadic.network + @lessonslearnedabroad (who taught me that it’s okay to be distracted, I should just do it *less*…)  - Getting back to all your emails (coming soon…. I promise)
Part 15: Aaaand I’m back! I disappeared from the Part 15: Aaaand I’m back! I disappeared from these videos for a bit, while @theaviaoexperience was building cabinets and while I was feeling totally overwhelmed and really over this project. Typical 2020 vibes, amiright?  But I got my second wind!  When we bought this van and started tearing it apart last fall, we discovered that every piece of ugly, maroon wall covering hid another mass of unlabeled wires. 🤦‍♀️  Everyone who looked inside the van (mechanics included) remarked that it was, like… A LOT of wires.  This video really only shows a small part of the tedious process of figuring out which ones went to what, and which ones we could cut. ✂  (This was previously a wheelchair van with a lift, remote controlled doors, a 90s TV and VCR, and lots of other accommodations we removed, which explained a lot.)
Part 14: Building the rest of the kitchen, which c Part 14: Building the rest of the kitchen, which could also be our future office and by virtue of it being about .5 square meters, a good reminder not to work toooo hard. Have a good week everyone! ✌️
Happy New Year! 🌙 The last time I really celeb Happy New Year! 🌙  The last time I really celebrated Chinese New Year was in 2015, when I was living in northern China. I spent the holiday with my dear friend @alice940314 's family, in a tiny hilltop town in Sichuan Province, and it was one of the most unique experiences of all my travels.  We spent a lot of time hanging out with her family on this patio, just chatting, looking out at the farm fields and going for slow walks between them, playing cards, and eating delicious foods (homemade by her mother and meant to bring luck in the new year). 🍚  We helped grandma plant her potatoes one afternoon, and walked slowly around town, where people gave me lots of funny looks (since my random appearance was the first documented incidence of a foreigner in town). We stopped in shops selling mountains of fireworks, and I snapped photos of the red paper left after they were set off.  It was probably the most blissfully low-key holiday I've ever been a part of, and just fascinatingly different from anything I'd done and any place I'd been. I can’t wait to go back again some year!  Do you celebrate Lunar New Year?  Or have you ever, anywhere in the world?
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