Just when I thought I was a tourist

Studying abroad in Italy was a memorable and unique experience. I lived there for half a year, took classes, become fairly fluent, and traveled almost every weekend around the country to experience this new culture and these new places.
The second or third weekend in Siena, a few friends and I had decided to take a trip to Venice. Most of our language skills were minimal at that point, but we could get around and express our needs in Italian when faced with public situations.
We got a little hungry around lunch on our second day and decided to stop at the next little shop for panini. In Italy, you do not tip but you pay a sitting fee for sitting at their tables. Being the cheap students we are, we ordered our food and carried it out and picks some steps in the sun to park our tired bodies. As we sat there enjoying our meal, we overheard an American tourist raising his voice outside of the cafe. After listening more carefully, it became apparent that he was asking the Italian gentleman if his beverage had sugar in it. He became increasingly more frustrated as the Italian man couldn't understand him. After a few minutes of this, my friend Joe, went up to the counter asked the American if he could help and then translated his needs to the Italian. Problem solved.
Initially, I was angry at the American and slightly embarrassed. How could he expect the Italian to understand him in a country that is not his own? Which brings us to a keyword, tourism. The interesting thing about being a tourist is that you travel to see the sights of another country, however are confined to your American bubble and still under the comforts of your own culture. In big cities for example, menus and museum plaques are translated.
Visiting a new country as a tourist is like going to Disneyland in some ways: you can enjoy a place on the surface. However, you may not understand the origins or culture or a people fully without living with it. Its like a false and safe way to see the world.
The point is that a true worldly experience may not be in seeing the sights but maybe trying something you might fail at like speaking the language, eating at a restaurant with an untranslated menu, or taking local transportation.
Rick Steves says that in Venice, there is no planning, the joy of the city is getting lost in it. This just might be the answer in all travel and understanding: Let go, get lost, and understanding comes from exposing yourself to something to might be slightly uncomfortable.