Looking where everyone else is not

“I can’t, I can’t,” I say holding my hand to my stomach as if trying to keep the Cacio e Pepe I had just consumed from spilling out. 

I was doubled over – not in pain or nausea, but in laughter – the kind of uncontrollable laughter I used to get as a kid in church – the kind that can’t be stifled no matter how hard you try. The kind that racks your body leaving you unable to catch your breath. The best kind. 

My sister-in-law was also gasping-unable to get any words of her own out through a laughter that was so loud it was silent. 

Her inability to pull herself together only egged me on.I jumped up from my seat, and made a long swooping gesture with my arm to my right – embodying the half bow of a maitrade and the cinematic gestures of an overly enthusiastic tour-guide, signaling without saying it – that we should draw our gaze in that direction. 

More peals of laughter. 

Nobody, other than us, seemed to acknowledge the comedy playing out in front of them. We were both the actors and the audience applauding ourselves with whoops, and snorts, and watering eyes. 

Our three teenagers stood ten feet away rapid fire posing for their Snapchats – their shirts worn in a way that always left one shoulder exposed: pouty lips, over the shoulder gaze, requisite back shot staring into the sky, slow-mo turn-around, and now their hands positioned under their chins,fingertips touching, broad teethy smiles as if serving themselves up on a social media platter. 

As the adults in the group, my sister-in-law and I were simply looking for a place to sit, lacking both the energy and enthusiasm of our teens after an early morning bus ride and a day trekking street after cobblestone street laden with our children’s water bottles, sweatshirts, and souvenir bags. The carb heavy pasta dishes didn’t leave us feeling fully photo ready, and so we sat on the concrete ledge facing the street to wait out the photoshoot. 

It wasn’t until twenty minutes later that the laughter had started. 

“What? What’s so funny” I asked when her initial giggles started, before the full on deluge of laughter that followed once I was in on the joke. 

She pointed directly in front of us-a row of thirty or so green port potties stared back at us as well as a bunch of camera laden tourists furiously clicking their shutters at what stood behind  us.

Our view

“Ummm…perhaps we should have been facing the other way” she choked out, and we looked once again at our girls, the arches of the Coliseum glowing warmly behind them as they took turns playing photographer and model, ensuring each of them would secure the perfect pic for posting. 

Their View

Yes, travel generally consists of seeing the sights, enjoying fine dining, and participating in unusual experiences but it is also about the tiny moments tucked inside the big ones – the inside jokes, the slap happy fatigue, and the unexpected joy that can come when you are looking where everyone else is not.