Tuesday 18 May 2010

R is for...

Rome

I do quite a bit of travelling and I see quite a few different towns and cities that way. When I'm in London I am the driver and the tourguide, which means I have to tell people all about that great city. When I'm in Rome, I have someone else tell the people and occasionally I manage to go along as well.

When guiding through London I will not talk about the date the buildings were built. First of all I can't get that in my head and secondly: there are books for that. I talk about Winnie the Pooh, smog and giant men buried in the garden of the Bank. I will give the anecdotes and stories (I hope) with an occasional nod to dated history. When I was in Rome last year, walking behind our Dutch tourguide who was telling us all about the history of the city and the buildings: when, where and who. As a proper tourguide should know!

So, where did she and do I get my information from? First of all: the books you can buy on every streetcorner in a major tourist area. Because you can talk until the cows come home, but if you don't know what a building looks like, you can't point it out to visitors. And those books are usually filled with the best photos, far better than I could make! After that you try and get other books to try and get the (basic) history, you read, you search the net and slowly you start making your own story.

The one thing you always have to do though when giving a tour in whatever part of the world: talk about what you know and stay true to yourself (oh, that's two). Talking about the Irish Potato Famine and not knowing how it came about is a definite no-no: you will only get yourself in trouble as soon as your first guest asks a question. And if something doesn't interest you, it will be extremely hard to make it sound as if you do, no matter how good an actor/actress you might be!

For more R words from across the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

12 comments:

  1. Perfect choice for the letter R. I would love to have you as my tour guide.

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  2. I agree with photowannabe! I'd love to take a tour with you as guide!

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  3. Rome is the place I like to visit someday. Happy Wednesday!

    ABC Wednesday

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  4. Great peek into the art of being a tour guide, - and a fine choice for R.

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  5. I'd love to have you as a tourguide in London ;-)

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  6. Anticipating the questions a tourist will ask is brilliant! I bet you're an awesome tour guide! (Do you want to come over to link up this post to my new meme...Where in the World? You can if you want too...it's a great post!)

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  7. Rome! Definitely on my Bucket List for touristy places to visit. But, I like venturing off the beaten path to see the unusual, the surprises, the "real" city behind the tourist mask. Don't get me wrong, I love the touristy stuff too. :-) Thanks for stopping by my place and leaving such a nice comment.

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  8. I would never be able to remember enough details to be a good tour guide! My memory for names, dates and places is pretty bad.

    I will rely on someone else to guide me when we get to Italy!

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  9. I would love to see Rome some day :)

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  10. I'm not sure I could do that. I don't retain information well. I would need cheat sheets!

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  11. I think you would be a fabulous guide.

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  12. It sounds like you have a great method and good ideas about implementing your knowledge. I wouldn't mind taking one of your tours.

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Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!