Why Did I Bring a Teenager to Venice? - Travel Tales by AFAR - video Dailymotion

AFAR

Subscribe to the Travel Tales Podcast at https://afar.com/podcast ——— Contributing writer Emma John loved the trip she took to Venice as a teenager with a worldly family friend. So when it comes time to return the favor—to introduce that friend's 13-year-old daughter to the wonders of the Floating City—Emma jumps at the chance. What could possibly go wrong? Though COVID-19 has stalled many travel plans, we hope our stories can offer inspiration for your future adventures.  Read the story here: https://rebrand.ly/2xqaxx8 ——— Afar.com is a digital and print magazine that publishes travel tips, guides, news, and stories: https://www.afar.com  Get updates on the latest articles, travel news, and more from AFAR by signing up for the AFAR newsletter: https://afar.com/newsletters  Follow AFAR on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AfarMedia Follow AFAR on Twitter: https://twitter.com/afarmedia Follow AFAR on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afarmedia

Transcript

00:00 Hey everyone, and welcome to Travel Tales, a podcast from Afar Media. I'm your host,

00:14 Senior Editor Aislinn Green. And for the past six years, I've had the pleasure of working

00:18 with some of the most creative and interesting people in the world. Comedians, philosophers,

00:23 novelists, they've all shared their stories with Afar's readers about getting out into

00:28 the world and just reveling in it. And now, each week on Travel Tales, we'll hear from

00:33 some of our favorite contributors about a trip that changed their life. And because

00:38 the world is really anything but normal right now, thanks to COVID-19, I'm recording all

00:43 of this from my houseboat in California. In this episode, we meet Emma John. Emma has

00:48 been writing for Afar for about a decade, and she is one of the most friendly, up-for-anything

00:54 people I have ever met. There was the time she crossed the Atlantic to fulfill her dream

01:00 of cruising like a 1930s heroine, and then there was a time she faced down enormous insects

01:05 in the Australian outback. She's also an author of two books, one about bluegrass in the American

01:10 South and one about cricket, which is your first clue that she's British. But before

01:15 we begin, I have to warn you that it is highly likely you'll fall in love with Emma the moment

01:19 you hear her voice, which is also your second clue she's British. But on the trip to Venice

01:24 you're about to hear, Emma's travel companion was immune to her charms. Well, at least at

01:30 first.

01:41 Soon it will be time for another adventure. But for now, enjoy these stories from travelers

01:46 who have connected to our world on a deeper level and let them fuel your dreams of a future

01:51 adventure. And with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card, you'll be well on your way to powerful

01:56 new experiences. Learn more at marriottboundlesscard.com.

02:06 It's late at night. I'm 13 years old, and I'm lying in a four-poster bed next to my

02:12 sister in Venice. The door to our room bursts open and a woman rushes in wearing pink silk

02:19 pyjamas and yelling a single word. "Gondolier! Gondolier!" The woman's name is Annie. She's

02:27 our mum's best friend. She's a single woman in her 30s, and she has never before been

02:34 left in sole charge of children. We're in Venice because my grandmother recently died.

02:41 My mum has just nursed my grands through the last six months of a terminal illness, and

02:46 it's been a tough time for the whole family. So Annie offered to give my parents a break

02:52 and to bring us kids away to her favorite city, Venice. She explodes into the room,

02:59 flings open the shutters, and when she does, we hear what she's so excited about because

03:04 outside, down in the canals beneath, someone is singing opera. A real-life singing gondolier

03:11 somewhere in the streets beneath us. "Quick," says Annie. "There's no time to get dressed."

03:16 Pull coats on over our pyjamas and hurtle down the stone steps into the night outside.

03:23 Chasing through the maze of Venice's footpaths and bridges, we lose ourselves in dead ends

03:28 and blind alleys, and we have to navigate by the sound of the music. So every time we

03:34 hear a new snatch of aria, we pelt across empty piazzas, in my case, wearing pyjama

03:39 bottoms that are too big for me, so I'm having to hold them up at the waist as I run to prevent

03:44 me exposing myself. After a lot of shrieking and giggling, we emerge quite suddenly onto

03:50 a tiny stone bridge where we catch our first glimpse of the gondolier. His boat slips smoothly

03:57 through the water, carrying a smooching couple who look quite surprised to see two children

04:02 and their guardian in their nightclothes, giddily staring and pointing at them, me bent

04:07 over double because I'm still trying to hold my pyjamas up. But the gondolier looks up

04:13 and waves, and as he passes, he sings to us, and I feel like I'm in a movie. This midnight

04:21 chase through the streets of Venice has been without a doubt the most thrilling and romantic

04:27 escapade of my young life. That week with Annie left a huge impact on me. It introduced

04:35 me to art and culture in a way I'd never experienced them before. It gave me a love for Italy I've

04:40 never shaken, and it formed a bond with Annie that just grew stronger and stronger as the

04:45 years went by. So, 20 years later, I'm 33 and single, and Annie has married and her

04:54 daughter has just turned 13, so I offer to repay the favour. I take Annie's daughter

05:01 Neve to Venice to pass on some of the magic I felt at her age, and hopefully to be the

05:08 same kind of crazy chaperone Annie was to me. We stand in St Mark's Square for the

05:14 first time, surrounded by the golden lions and the glittering mosaics and the breathtaking

05:21 basilica. I ask Neve what she thinks. She shrugs and says, "Eh, I've seen stuff

05:28 like this before." And I am crushed. But it's okay, I think. There's plenty more

05:34 in this city to impress her. So I pack our schedule with activities. We do the glass

05:40 blowing at Murano and the beaches at the Lido. We do the frescoes at the Doge's Palace

05:45 and the fish market at the Rialto, and I even get the waiters at Harry's Bar to mix her

05:51 her own Shirley Temple. And none of this seems to impress her at all. As soon as we finish

05:58 one thing, she looks up at me through a wisp of blonde hair, her wide blue eyes emanating

06:05 from boredom, and she says, "What are we going to do next?" And that phrase becomes

06:12 like a dagger in my heart. Every time I hear it, I know I'm letting her down as a companion

06:19 and boring her as a human being. I need to up my game, so I book us into a workshop at

06:27 Costume Makers, and we spend the afternoon creating and decorating Venetian masks. And

06:34 this reminds me of the spellbinding stories Annie told me when I was a teenager of secret

06:40 societies and deadly jewels and Casanova. And I tell Niamh all that I can recall of

06:46 these, hoping to inspire her with that romance. And she finishes her mask and gives it a satisfied

06:54 nod and looks up and says, "What are we going to do next?" I can't tell if she's having

07:02 a good time, but I know I'm not. I had pictured Niamh being overwhelmed with excitement and

07:10 gratitude. I'd imagine sharing the same kind of wild, extravagant fun I'd had with Annie,

07:16 but I have a heartbreaking feeling she's just waiting out this week, desperate to be

07:21 home. Meanwhile, I spend every moment worrying what we'll do when the next distraction

07:27 runs out, and by the middle of the week I am anxious and sleepless and exhausted. And

07:33 one morning while Niamh is still asleep, I grab my phone from beside the bed and hide

07:38 it under the covers and frantically text Annie. "Help! What did you do with us?"

07:47 A couple of minutes later, she replies, "Took siestas, sat in the square and

07:56 made you draw things."

07:57 Afar Travel Tales, presented by the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card from Chase, is a powerful

08:13 way to connect through stories of travel. Stories move us. They take us across the world

08:19 and into the unknown. Stories inspire us to ask questions and dream of possibilities.

08:26 The experiences we share give us a glimpse of where we could go, what we could learn,

08:31 how we could grow. We hope the stories here will lift you up and give you inspiration

08:37 for adventures to come. Until then, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card can help you on your

08:41 way to future destinations. Learn more at marriottboundlesscard.com.

08:56 I hadn't sketched since I was a teenager myself. But before we left, Annie had slipped a spiral-bound

09:03 sketchbook and a tin of pencils into the top of my suitcase. So that morning over breakfast,

09:09 when Niamh asks, "What are we going to do next?" I point at the sketchbook and I say,

09:15 "Today we are going to draw things."

09:20 A little way from our apartment, Niamh picks a spot with a view of an ancient and crumbly

09:24 building. We unfold the book across our laps and start our wobbly line drawings.

09:32 I'd forgotten that I enjoyed sketching, forgotten that I even knew how. But as I watch Niamh

09:37 concentrate hard on a casement window, I have this blast of memory from 20 years before

09:44 of me and my sister chewing on the ends of our pencils and sharing an eraser between

09:49 us. And as I hunch over my side of the book and become absorbed in the columns with their

09:55 leafy capitals, a new feeling descends on me, kind of like a peace.

10:03 After a while, Niamh looks at my side of the book and tells me my drawing is very good.

10:07 "I like the way you've made it lean to the left," she says. And I tell her hers is good

10:13 too, and she smiles at me and says, "Let's do some more."

10:19 So we find more subjects, wells, palazzos, the bell tower of the Santa Maria Gloriosa.

10:26 And when we've had enough, we wander through town feeling very proud of our achievements.

10:31 And suddenly anything seems possible. Niamh suggests we play a game. "I'll flip a coin,"

10:37 she says. "Heads we go left, tails we go right." And suddenly our afternoon is an exciting

10:42 adventure and it takes us through pretty squares lined with olive trees and leads us to elegant

10:49 shops where we try on silk scarves that we wrap around our heads like movie stars and

10:54 expensive grown-up perfumes that we spray all over each other till we stink. Eventually

11:00 we come out at St. Mark's Square again, only this time Niamh wants to go in the basilica.

11:06 So we stand in line for half an hour before we get to the door. And all the while, my

11:11 newly delightful companion is bubbling with conversation. "Look at that cute dog. I love

11:17 small dogs, not big ones though. When did you get your ears pissed? I want to have mine

11:21 pissed but mum says not till I'm 16. Have you read the Pityka's law books? Oh, they're

11:26 amazing. Let me tell you all about them." We're within spitting distance of the vast

11:31 cathedral door when a marshal shakes his head and points at Niamh's skirt. It's too short.

11:39 That might offend God. He can't risk it. Niamh leans over and whispers to me that she can

11:45 fix it. So she grabs her skirt and wiggles and twists and twists and wiggles until her

11:51 hemline reaches her knees. Of course, this means that the waistband is now barely covering

11:57 her butt. So as we walk up and down the aisles of Venice's most holy and magnificent edifice,

12:05 she is clamping her hands over her midriff to make sure she doesn't expose herself. And

12:10 we're trying so hard not to laugh out loud. It's making us giggle even more. And by the

12:15 time we reach the altar, she is doubled over with laughter, holding her skirt up just as

12:21 I had to hold my pyjamas up 20 years ago. And finally, finally, we are sharing the magic

12:28 of Venice. We leave the city two days later, and it feels way too soon. I'm really enjoying

12:37 Niamh's company and being chaperoned to a 13 year old suddenly feels like a lot of fun.

12:43 A real excuse to act as a teenager, in fact. Niamh sits down in her seat and I sit down

12:49 next to her. And she turns and asks, "What are we going to do next?"

13:05 That was Emma John. Emma is currently spending time in southern England, where she let us

13:11 know that she's been hiking a lot. She's also working on her third book, a nonfiction exploration

13:17 of the lives of single women. And though she and Niamh haven't traveled together since

13:22 Venice, Emma says they're both quite interested in Verona. Ready for more travel stories?

13:30 Visit us online at afar.com/traveltales. And be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

13:36 We're @afarmedia. If you enjoyed today's adventure, we hope you'll come back next week for more

13:42 great stories. Subscribing makes this easy. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

13:48 or your favorite podcast platform. And please be sure to rate and review us. It helps other

13:53 travelers find the show. This has been Travel Tales, a production of

13:58 Afar Media and Boom Integrated. Our podcast was produced by Aislinn Green, Adrienne Glover

14:03 and Robin Lai. Post-production was by John Marshall Media staff, Jen Grossman and Clint

14:08 Rhodes. Music composition by Alan Queresha. And a special thanks to Laura Redmond, Sarah

14:14 Storm and Irene Wang. I'm Aislinn Green, your zoomed out, under-traveled host. I can't wait

14:21 to hit the road again. Until we all freely can, remember that travel begins the moment

14:26 we walk out our front door. Everyone has a travel tale. What's yours?

14:30 [Music]

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Why Did I Bring a Teenager to Venice? - Travel Tales by AFAR

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