We started what turned out to be a very long walking tour near the Piazza Gaetano Salvemini. I swear I took a picture of the piazza and Madeline right when we got off the bus but can't find it. Perhaps to be updated later. This is the street immediately after that Piazza.
So, Madeline. As with Silvana in Rome, we were given a local expert to supplement Bernie's knowledge on the tour. This was Madeline. Poor Madeline. I can say that now in hindsight, at the time it was frickin' Madeline. Unlike all the other tour guides she didn't have a banner of some kind. Some used brightly colored umbrellas, some tied ribbons to sticks. Without one, it's nearly impossible to find your guide in the throngs of other tourists and tour guides. She also talked non stop (we had portable radios to listen to her with, hence you might notice many pictures with all the people wearing earbuds), and walked fast. We lost Madeline in the crowd almost immediately. We were so worried about not getting lost it was hard to pay attention to her monologue or enjoy the sights. When we did listen, she would say "And now look over here..." and explain something. Well we had no clue where "over here" was since we couldn't find her. By the end of the tour, pretty much everyone in our group was not happy with Madeline. I know from general consensus that when we did our surveys at the end of the trip, many people gave her a scathing review. So now I almost feel sorry for her. It should be noted that several people talked to her during the tour to try and explain this, and she just shrugged and kept on going, so it's not like we didn't try.
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