In the beginning \u2026 everything was cash, tickets and texts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Larry was in with all the concierges on Via Veneto. This winding boulevard sweeps down from the Porta Pinciana (one of the entrances in the 3rd century Aurelian Walls) to the Piazza Barberini below with its splashing Bernini fountain and gleaming white Barberini palace. The street became the symbol of Italy\u2019s Dolce Vita, immortalized by Federico Fellini\u2019s film of the same name and attracting stars like Audrey Hepburn and Anita Ekberg. Now it boasts Rome\u2019s big, swanky hotels and perhaps the city\u2019s widest sidewalks in a neighborhood where everyone takes taxis and private cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over that summer I passed through swishing glass doors into the air conditioned hush of marble and crystal as I became familiar with the Eden, the Splendide Royale, the Grand Hotel Palace and with flower arrangements that were larger than me. The environment of cool and ostentatious luxury was the exact opposite of everything I\u2019d experienced in my Roman life. Even if I\u2019d just run up the Veneto hill and was covered in sweat, my socks peeking out of the rips in my converse, I\u2019d straighten my back and affect a gentle head nod as I imagined Audrey must have done with a low, dusky \u201cbuongiorno\u201d that I\u2019m sure fooled nobody into thinking I belonged there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019d be sent into these shining, golden foyers to collect our guests who, the evening before had probably gone to the concierge asking, \u201cWhat should we do tomorrow?\u201d Larry would get a call. He\u2019d arrange fares, tickets, whether they wanted a guide with driver or just a transfer or if a taxi would do just fine. Meet at the hotel or near the venue? How many people? Somewhere between 9pm and 10pm at night we (the guides) would be informed where we would be going and what we\u2019d be doing the next day by text message. If you didn\u2019t hear anything, you didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9am Colo. 2 pax. SMITH. Forum meeting point. Collect \u20ac300.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2pm Vatican Meet at Regina Baglioni. YANG. 4 pax + driver Riccardo. Don\u2019t collect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thx.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On my very first tour my palms were sweating too much to pull out the book of \u201cBefore and After\u201d pictures I wanted to show them. Seven years later, I almost never go to the Forum without this same book despite the fact that the cover has ripped off and the pictures are fading. On that first day it served only as a talisman as I didn\u2019t want to alarm them with my shaking. I had launched into a tale of gladiators and slavery, trying to remember to make occasional eye contact (but not in a creepy way) when the husband gently interrupted me, \u201cSo sorry, I have a question.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh my gosh, I thought. It\u2019s the moment of truth. The first big test. Will I know the answer? Ok\u2026 hit me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat tree over there\u2026 what\u2019s it called?\u201d I had no idea. As the weeks progressed, I started to realize that a lot of the job was learning how to eloquently answer things I had absolutely no clue about. The trick was to learn what things you were supposed to know and give a reasonably intelligent answer and what things it would be cool if you knew but it was ok that you didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I found that while I could explain what seemed like every single stone in the Forum, lo and behold, people didn\u2019t usually care about that. You just never knew what they did want to know about, so you had to be prepared for everything. Chronology of the Roman emperors. Building materials and techniques. When was glass invented? Life span of a peasant? What did people eat? What was the deal with Cleopatra? Did they really kill people for fun? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes questions seemed to come out of nowhere:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walking up to the Trevi Fountain deciding what to bring up first, Italian cinema or Baroque Architecture: \u201cWhat are Italy\u2019s largest imports and exports and what are average work weeks like?\u201d (Ummmm.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talking about the Sistine Chapel: \u201cHow does the Byzantine Empire fit into all this? When did that happen?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walking through the Forum: \u201cWhat was happening in China during this time period? Just as a comparison.\u201d (Very interesting question\u2026 no idea.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where Anita Ekberg walked into the fountain? Who?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I hear all the time is, \u201cI\u2019m sorry I\u2019m so ignorant on this subject\u201d to which my response is: Why are you supposed to know about this? You know about banking or medicine or mechanics or graphic design. You know about raising kids and changing the oil in your car or the stock market and about 8 million things I don\u2019t know anything about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The job of a private tour guide is usually not to give a lecture but to understand the level and expectations of the people in front of you and to try and deliver what they want to the best of your ability. You have to know history and art but you also have to know psychology and customer service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ve got your tickets in advance, you\u2019ve found the clients and there\u2019s one more person than you expected because \u201cOur friend Bob decided to tag along,\u201d (Oh Hi Bob!) so you figure out how to get another ticket last minute, you\u2019ve made a good impression, you\u2019re in the Forum re-enacting Marc Antony\u2019s eulogy for Caesar and pointing out where the current Mayor\u2019s office window is. You get into a conversation about how democratic systems fail. You start talking about their kids. You tell them where to eat dinner that night and make a reservation for them because they just said they haven\u2019t had good Italian food and it\u2019s a tragedy that must be solved immediately. Then you\u2019re in the middle of a story about emperor Nero \u2013 was he a psychopath or an artist? (same thing?) \u2013 then you\u2019re talking about the Christians and persecution and how spirituality can be conveyed by architecture. You check out that view of the Circus Maximus and even though you\u2019ve seen it a thousand times you\u2019re still stunned by how beautiful that view is and how every time you look into that empty valley you see the grandstands and the crowds and you really feel history settling over you like a dust that you feel a part of but also outside of. Oh yes, that building over there is from the Fascist era. Then you\u2019re maneuvering the lines of the Colosseum (this was before they had security and there were no timed entrances) and you\u2019re looking at the arena floor from above talking about entertainment and violence and socialization. Have humans changed over time or is it only by chance that we don\u2019t enjoy these things anymore? Don\u2019t we still, in a way? The taxi stand is over there by the orange building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then it\u2019s over and they\u2019re gone never to be seen again and you hope you\u2019ll get good feedback via the concierge \u2013 Larry chain of communication. You\u2019ll only ever hear about it if they were unhappy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the beginning \u2026 everything was cash, tickets and texts. Larry was in with all the concierges on Via Veneto. This winding boulevard sweeps down from the Porta Pinciana (one of the entrances in the 3rd century Aurelian Walls) to the Piazza Barberini below with its splashing Bernini fountain and gleaming white Barberini palace. The street […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenmouat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenmouat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenmouat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenmouat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenmouat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenmouat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenmouat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenmouat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenmouat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenmouat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}