Sign up for a group tour. There will be about ten others from all over the country who will, over the course of the tour, become your new best friends. I did this on a week tour of Rome. There was a marathon run which closed off our route to the hotel, so we had to walk a few miles, stopping for refreshments. Conversations started. On checking into the hotel, four fellow tour members I hadn’t spoken with invited me to lunch. We then walked over to the Pantheon (it was just down the alley).

The whole tour was like that. Even on the bus back to the airport at the end of the trip, a lady I had not spoken to before sat next to me and told her life story.

It’s surprising how open we are when there is no risk of judgment or rejection.