Don't Look Now But I've Become A Tourist

I decided to come down from the walls today and take some pictures around town and of the churches. The problem was that I felt like such a tourist doing it. So I thought long and hard about how I could make myself not stand out as much, as I’m sitting there gawking at the Cathedral, and the statues, and the horse drawn carriage! So I finally came to a solution, mix in with a tour group. I know, it seems counterproductive, but when I was surrounded by other tourists, I didn’t feel like I stuck out so much, that whole mob mentality and such. So here I was, following on the fringe of the tour group from site to site, thinking I blended in nicely, when the leader came up to me and invited me to come listen to their guide. Oh how embarrassing, I was found out. This wasn’t just a randomly thrown together sightseeing tour, they all knew each other already. However, they were very gracious; turns out they were a group of alumni from a Catholic College in Minnesota, and I hung out with them a bit longer before heading off to take some sunset pictures from the wall. Here are some of those pictures to enjoy.



PS – My misadventures with the language continue as well. While strolling along the wall the other evening, I was stopped by a group of older men, “Scusi Signorina, un momento”; they had a question to ask. I smiled politely and calmly told them, “No hablo Italiano”. They laughed good-naturedly and I walked on, congratulating myself on communicating so clearly. That is until a few minutes later when I realized that while I had told them I don’t speak Italian, I had said it in Spanish. This is going to be fun…