Encounter with a Gondola Driver

Just a couple of weeks ago my team had our de-brief in Bologna, which turns out is such a fun and beautiful city. There is such a huge trendy/indie/earthy population which I didn't expect, mostly because there is so little of that here. But anyways, the Monday after our de-brief was the Day of the Republic here in Italy...something like our 4th of July, so we celebrated the Republic in Venice. I was very excited about this because I had never been and just recently my brother Carl had scolded me that I had lived in Italy for 2 years and had never been. It was awesome, it only costs 8 euro to get there by train, which is so cheap and unnexpected!

Anyways, our day in Venice was quite lovely. We had beautiful weather and got to see so much of it in so little time. It really is like walking through a movie set. So my encounter with the gondola driver begins with the fact that that day I was wearing a red and white striped shirt, which is typical of a venetian gondola driver. So on the way Rick and Mario are telling me that I have to get a picture with a gondola driver because it's just too perfect. This made me a little nervous, but I didn't think much of it.

So, we were eating lunch in a piazza and there was a gondola driver with a red and white shirt on just sitting there smoking, not really doing anything. This gondola driver didn't look very inviting, but Rick drags me over there anyways and starts to talk to him. So he asks if we can have a picture together and the guy gladly obliges. THEN Rick says OK let's get another one, but with a kiss! So he leans in for the kiss (on the cheek) and he decides at this point that his hand would be more comfortable on my butt!!! I just froze and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. My team enjoyed a good laugh at my expense about this one. So, all this to say that being on a gondola with the driver singing to me doesn't sound as dreamy to me as it used to.

Here's the picture of my creepy new friend:















Here are some more pictures so that's not all you see of Venice