Marc Llewellyn is an award-winning freelance travel writer based in Sydney, Australia. He is the author of several books, including his travelogue Riders to the Midnight Sun and is currently the President of the Australian Society of Travel Writers.

Marc is also the co-author of the Frommers Guide to Australia, and the Dummies Guide to Australia. Finding Nino, his latest creation, is a tale of a year spent living on Lipari, the largest of the Aeolian Islands.

Ninemsn travel editor Jo Pham caught up with Marc to find out about his latest story about a sea change in Italy.

Jo: tell us a little bit about the story Finding Nino?

Marc: its basically about a sea change in Italy, it's about love and the search for home and finding the meaning of life while living in Lipari, Italy. [Lipari is] one of the Aeolian Islands on the north coast of Italy, also known as the 'Island of the Winds'.

It's a real story based on my reality. My wife and I basically went to Lipari on holiday a year or so before [writing the book] and visited a friend of ours who had married a prawn fisher. He said to us, you obviously love the island so why not come and live here then? It was extremely beautiful and was the perfect isolated Mediterranean [sea change] …

We thought it was a madcap idea — we had jobs at home, flats we were renting and a dog. But soon after our son Louis was born, we decided since we were having a life-changing experience, why not go all the way.

Jo: did you find it easy to communicate with the locals?

Marc: I had a very basic understanding of Italian; my wife was pretty good. I had a good spattering of Spanish but the dialect on the islands is a strange mix of Italian, French, Spanish, Greek and Arabic. We had a lot of time to learn but you could always use sign language.

Jo: who is Nino?

Marc: who is Nino? He is a peasant farmer who rented us our house up in the hills. He was very much a spiritual type of person and he lived in the old ways. He was a peasant farmer, a man that lived with the seasons and grew all the family food off the land. From capers, potatoes, vegetables, wine, it was all grown themselves. He was an extremely wise man and he taught me a lot of things about family and home and how to be happy and self-sufficient.

Jo: how was it tasting his homemade wine?

Marc: [Laugh] it was extremely effective wine and I was really trying to be polite at first but you kind of get used to it. It was actually quite disgusting and tasted a bit like a cross between strong lemon juice and battery acid.

Jo: your last two books seem to have a running theme of a desire to escape the monotony of everyday life and embark on exotic journeys around the world. Is this a reflection of your personal life?

Marc: one thing I learnt from living on the island is that I had time to reflect on the fact that people are always saying they are unhappy with things. Actually "unhappy" is not the right word; perhaps I should say "not fully content or satisfied". They always want to change, to travel. And I realised that I'm happiest when things do change. I get itchy feet and am a very curious person and that combination means every now and again I have to run away and have that experience.

Jo: do you believe a sea change to an exotic country really can be a permanent move?

Marc: a lot of people who do these kinds of things come back. My mother was living in Spain for four years and she has just come back for different reasons. But our [reason], personally was time. We have learnt what we wanted to learn and what we wanted was a home of our own. I am originally from Wales but have been in Australia for 17 years. As our personal journey came to an end, we made the decision to return to the place that I knew now was home. It helped us realised that Australia was our home and where we wanted to be.

Jo: given the chance, where would you pick as your ultimate sea change destination besides Lipari?

Marc: ultimate destination? I've been to places like Tahiti, and the Maldives but you wouldn't want to live there. I think perhaps living on the coast of Spain — you would get a good mixture [of cultures]. You would experience English culture plus you get the Spanish culture, the climate and the food. However, now that I am in Australia and feel at home, I'm pretty happy.

Jo: as a seasoned world traveller, what is your number one travel tip?

Marc: it would be to get lost. Go off the tourist route. If you go to Venice don't go down the main route; just go and get lost. Having that experience on an off beaten track is what you really want to do.

For more information head to www.findingnino.com.au.