Watching a recent 60 Minutes segment, I found myself commiserating with the featured Broadway performers who have been out of work this past year. As a tour guide in Italy, my work, too, has disappeared.

Watching a recent 60 Minutes segment, I found myself commiserating with the featured Broadway performers who have been out of work this past year. As a tour guide in Italy, my work, too, has disappeared.

Nathan Lane, one of those unemployed Broadway stars, stated something that struck me: “We’ve missed that connection. It’s about connection. The human connection.” While he, of course, was referring to the stage, I suddenly realized that’s what I had been missing, too. Although the loss of income has been difficult, it is that connection with tour members – that sense of community – that I miss most. I miss not only building relationships with my tour members but helping them connect with each other and with locals.

To build this sense of community on Rick Steves tours, one of my favorite early-tour activities is a Venice pub crawl. After I show my tour members the ropes at a couple of Venetian cicchetti bars, I send them off to find their own cicchetti, or Italian-styled tapas (usually bread topped with fresh seafood, meat, or cheese), and tell them to give one to a fellow tour member. With this single activity, they interact with locals, learn about the culture, and connect with each other. I love how they relax throughout the evening (the wine helps!) as they grow more comfortable with each other and their foreign surroundings. This experience bonds them for the rest of the tour and makes them more confident to set out on their own adventures.

On my recent Molly’s Old South tour of Colonial Charleston, a third-generation sweetgrass basket maker demonstrated her craft to my group. Watching her hands fly as she worked was mesmerizing, but even more fascinating was her story.  She explained how her ancestors learned this craft (originally imported from Africa) on a nearby plantation and how she is keeping it alive by teaching it to her children and grandchildren. She even showed us five generations of her family’s baskets, from her grandmother’s to her granddaughter’s. My tour members were able to ask questions not only about her art but her life – to learn about and connect with someone they normally would never meet.

This is why travel is special and why the last year’s virtual experiences – happy hours, museum visits, gatherings, etc. – don’t cut it. Travel is about being bold and putting ourselves out there to make those connections we crave. As much as we may love a culture’s art or architecture or food, it is the people we meet who really create our lasting memories.

To close with more Nathan Lane: “I love Netflix but enough is enough.” Agreed!  Now that travel is returning, we can get off our couches and enjoy the live adventure and community that travel brings us. I am ready! Are you?

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