Thoughts about "Europe Outside Your Tent: Romantic Italy" - More than just camping this time with lots of local charms

To date, I have watched all seasons of the "Europe Outside Your Tent" series but honestly speaking, the concept was getting a bit stale by now especially when some of the cast members didn't seem to enjoy the camping that much. In addition, it was getting repetitive and somewhat predictable to see the same formula of driving to the campsite, setting up the tents, cooking meals, spending a night and leaving the campsite the following day repeated for a good 10+ episodes. Although there was time given to explore the local sights at times, this was largely limited since it did look like the trips were organised around pretty tight schedules and they had to cover a lot of places rather than spend extended time in a spot.

Among all the installments, my No.1 favourite was the Norway season which was largely due to the breathtakingly beautiful sights there in winter rather than anything special or particularly enjoyable that was done during the camping time. While I did enjoy the previous season starring Ra Mi-ran in France especially the parts when they did activities or went trekking, the new season with a different cast other than Ra was not really high on my list to watch.

This time round, Ra's co-stars were people who she hardly knew or had never met prior to this trip - Kwak Sun-young, Lee Joo-bin and Lee Se-young so it did feel a bit different from the onset compared to the last season. I was a bit concerned that this unfamiliarity might make the vibe a bit awkward but over the course of the trip, you can see that the actresses warmed up to one another naturally and gradually. It was also interesting for me as a viewer to see a different side of the co-stars beyond the impressions I had of them in their works. The funny thing was I actually didn't recognise Lee Joo-bin who appeared in "Money Heist Korea" until much later.

What worked for me this time was that more time was devoted to the travel aspect of the trip rather than the camping. And the amount of cooking scenes was considerably scaled down as the theme shifted from feasting at the camp to comparatively speedier and simpler meals. Not to say that I didn't like watching the cast cook and eat but too much of the same thing can be boring. And there is a high tendency that they tend to cook Korean food rather than taste more of the local stuff but to be fair, they actually modified their recipes when using local ingredients. Although the concept of the show is still about camping, I thought that the balance in this season was better because people surely don't spend all of their days at the campsite only in real life. It makes more sense to incorporate the travel aspect more prominently or else this should be re-positioned as a pure camping show and not a camping + travel show.

A key part of traveling is to explore the local sights and enjoy local food so I was happy to note that the cast got more opportunities to eat out especially when they were in Austria and Germany which were definitely more interesting and enjoyable to watch. However, the tight schedule also meant that things were so rushed during the last two stops that I would have wanted to watch more and in greater detail. I also felt bad for the cast who only had 2 hours of free time to explore Munich. Perhaps when planning the trips next time, it might be better to focus on a single region or limit country hopping to no more than 2 although I get that it's more economical and better for TV to have multiple places covered. Variety is important but I actually want to see more of the things beyond the usual touristy spots and a more in-depth and intimate take on the sights that might not be so accessible or commonly-known.