Q-Eng

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Toastmasterの例会でスピーチをしました。スピーチをするときは、原稿を書いて、読んでみて直して、練習して直して、覚えて・・・という作業が必要なので、とても毎月というわけにはいきません。
スピーチをしない例会でも、interviewerやらgramarianやら、いろいろな役目が回ってくるので、結構忙しいし、常に(私の場合）プレッシャーがかかります。でも、そのプレッシャーが後押しになってくれてるのかも、とも思います。｢次は、もっとうまくインタビュ－しよう」とか「上手に司会ができるようになりたいな」とか思いますから。

私のスピーチの題は、"Once in a lifetime tour in Venice"です。かなり大げさにジェスチャーを入れて話しました。聞いている人に、この話が面白いかどうかわからなかったので、退屈されないように、と思って。。。終わってから、「おもしろかった」と言ってもらえたのが幸いです。

Once in a lifetime tour in Venice

Good afternoon. So, my question, which do you prefer, package tours or private tours?
I prefer private tours. I always plan my travels myself. Sometimes things don’t go perfectly, but that's the reason why the memories of my travels become unforgettable. I'm going to talk about one of my best memories, it's an amazing gondola riding experience in Venice.

My husband and I traveled through Italy several years ago. We stayed Venice for three days. On the first day we visited St. Mark's Square and walked around the city, and on the second day we enjoyed touring the nearby islands, like Murano island, known for Venetian glass.

The event that we looked forward to most was riding a gondola, and we had booked a tour by the name of “Gondola serenade”. We had made the appointment with a tour guide at a gondola pier for 5:00 pm.

We prepared elaborately and arrived there on time, but no person who looked like a tour guide appeared. We decided to wait for him while looking at other gondola rides. An ordinary gondola seemed to have six passengers and was rowed by two gondoliers.

A lot of travelers came to ride, and each tour took 30-40 minutes. There seemed to be a large traffic jam in the canal caused by all of the gondolas leaving and returning. We heard songs from gondolas here and there such as ・Santa Lutia ( I sing)・. Disappointingly they weren't sung by gondoliers, but heard coming from CD players. The tourists' laughing voices and songs created a joyous mood.

We waited and waited, but the guide never appeared. Having no other option, I asked a nearby gondolier to let us ride, and he answered, "OK. But we have to shut down at 9 o'clock. Please come back here tomorrow". My heart dropped.

The next day we had to go back to Japan.
"What misery we couldn't ride a gondola in Venice!", and we were wandering toward the hotel where we stayed with heads hanging low. On the way back, we saw a gondolier who was about to tie his boat. He asked me, "You look really sad, what's wrong?" I explained that we didn’t have a chance to ride a gondola and we had to leave the next day” . So he said that he could take us and actually this was the best time to ride, because noisy motor boats weren’t permitted to go through the canals after 9:00 o’clock.

We accepted his proposal pleasantly and we started. The time passed 10 o'clock and there were no motor boats or other gondolas in the canals. We were the only passengers on all canals. It was late May, the temperature was pleasant with no wind. There were no lights other than the one pale lamp at the head of our gondola. The lamp cast its light only a very short way. We could see nothing but dark water and a lot of bridges, one after the other. A lot of tourists from all over the world seemed to be heading back to their hotels to have dinner, I wondered. It was completely quiet. The only sounds that broke the silence were the splashes that the oars made while rowing.

We glided slowly through the narrow canals. We went behind official looking empty buildings which stood tall in the quiet air. Behind many Italian restaurants, we heard the cooks chuckling and laughing. They might have been talking about today's generous guests. We went behind houses where we heard a lullaby being sung by a mother to her baby.

Suddenly the gondolier stopped the boat and said, "Take a look over your shoulders". There we were able to see the moonlit St. Mark's tower between the ancient buildings. "This is a secret place only Venetians know". It was the most fantastic view I’ve ever seen. My husband and I hugged tightly, in my imagination.

Bridge after bridge. We went underneath hundreds of bridges in Venice until midnight. Our tour finally finished and we floated back to our hotel, in a dream-like state. I will never forget my time in Venice.