The Tourist Guide, a special job! - Part 2

5 moments to remember

In my previous article I had left you with the idea of ​​a post on some of the most beautiful gestures or memories of my work and the selection of only five of them was certainly very difficult!

There are many beautiful moments and memories related to my job, indeed it is not true that alla the visitors are the same and that we forget them ten minutes after finishing the guided tour!

Here is a first list of some of the episodes which I recall but, believe me, they are many more!

1. Christiane and Maurice. My friends in Briançon are an example of how tourists, sometimes, can become friends. The days spent visiting Milan with their small and very pleasant group were splendid! Christiane and Maurice, the organisers of the tour, became my friends and, years later, they came back to Italy not for tourism but… as guests to my wedding!
2. Iranian group. It does not often happen to work with visitors of this nationality, I remember they were in Milan for a gold commercial fair and that I guided them in English for the classic tour Castello Sforzesco, Duomo, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Teatro alla Scala. Charming men and women who followed me with interest and then gave me, at the end of the guided tour, a book of poetry in Persian; unfortunately I don't speak Iranian but those mysterious signs on those elegant pages are enchanting!
3. Japanese group. The present of a Japanese lady was refined and graceful, a delicate origami that reproduced a bird given to me at the end of the guided tour of the Certosa di Pavia. The lady was a participant in a group trip and, from what I understood, she had a small supply of origami made by her for her tour in Italy to give to the people who would have hit her most...
4. Vive la France et les francophones! I work a lot with French-speaking tourists (especially from France but also from Switzerland and Belgium), often couples or families who allocate part of their travel budget to have a private and personalized guided tour. Many of them showed how close to us they are during these times of Covid-19. When the tragic news about the epidemic in Italy, and in particular in Lombardy, began to circulate, I started to receive e-mails and messages from many of my customers asking if everything was okay with me. Here again I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone!
5. The last episode is funnier than memorable... A few years ago an elegant and lovely family from the Island of Réunion booked me a few days of guided tours in Milan, also discovering the less known corners and spending breakfasts and lunches together, between pleasant and cultural chatter. At the end of the stay, hugs, thanks, greetings and finally, the charming family man handed me an elegant red package containing a bottle of rum as the gentleman was one of the major producers of this typical Réunion liqueur. I thanked him and I added "Excellent! Tonight I will prepare a good Cuba Libre cocktail for my husband with this rum! " I went home and when my husband saw the bottle, his eyes lit up: a vintage rum that had won I don't know what an important international award. Well... his eyes immediately lost their brightness when I brought back my comment on the Cuba Libre cocktail that I had made... My husband, incredulous and embarrassed, exclaimed "But did you really tell him that ???!" Well...I understood that it would be as if you received a bottle of Barolo of 1975 from one of the best Piedmontese producers and said "Excellent! I will use it tonight during the barbecue in the garden to make a good Sangria! ".

If this ending made you want to exotic landscapes and flavors here is an in-depth link on the Island of Réunion for a nice trip for now... just virtual!