Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Rick Steves at the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Okay, this may be the funniest moment of our trip so far: Dick and I were touring through the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, admiring the architecture and art, when we noticed a film crew setting up. Next thing we know, there's Rick Steves!!

"Who is Rick Steves?" you may ask? He's a travel writer who writes guidebooks, has his own travel show and podcasts of many locations throughout Europe. We had never used his books before this trip, but Dick's father is a fan, and shared his DVDs of Rick Steves in Italy with us when we last visited in March. My friend, Michael Gaines, also highly recommended Rick Steves' Italy guidebook, as he had used it on a trip last year.

Dick and I have found his book to be very helpful and full of good tips. (we also use the DK Eyewitness Travel Top 10 books for each city.)

We've also downloaded several of Rick Steves' podcasts of audio tours of specific sights we have visited. This included the Colosseum, a Renaissance walk through Florence, a few museums, and even a tour down the Grand Canal in Venice via Vaporettti (water buses) which we did today.

Anyhow, we've been listening to Rick Steves' voice via the podcasts, and reading his book at length over the past 11 days.

Imagine our surprise when we came face-to-face with him in a church in Florence today! He was busy filming, so we didn't want to bother him, so we simply held up out copy if his book, and gave him a thumbs up! Dorky, i know, but it really was hilarious.

Photos weren't allowed in the church, although I did manage to sneak one. Once we went outside, we saw a door was opened not far from where Rick was filming, so I got another photo from there.

Super Funny!!

Thanks, Rick! :)

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