Definition of a Tourist [too r-ist], noun: a temporary second class citizen in someone else’s country.
During my first trip to Italy back in the first Ice Age, I noticed the Italians doing something a certain way. I don’t even remember what it was that caught my attention. But when I asked my Italian tour guide why the Italians had this certain custom, he shrugged and said “Is the way.” And it still, in a lot of ways, “is the way.”
But truthfully, it’s not easy being a tourist in any country. No matter how smart or how educated we think we are, we all do a certain amount of bumbling around when we’re tourists abroad. I realize nobody likes to be told what to do or how to behave, but here are a few things I’ve seen tourists do, or even things I’ve done myself that, if we knew better, would make us better visitors to Italy. I will call them The Ten Little Boo-boos.
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