Ming the Mechanic:
A week in Italy

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 A week in Italy2005-07-14 15:54
7 comments
picture by Flemming Funch

Back from a week in Italy. In part work, but also the closest thing to a vacation with the family I've had for a while.

We stayed in a small town next to San Bendetto del Tronto, on the east coast by the Adriatic Sea. A vacation spot where one goes to the beach, and to the market in the castle, and out to eat at restaurants, and where there isn't a whole lot else to do.

And we dropped by Rome, Pisa and Genova along the way. I had been in Rome before, but it is a long time ago.

As usual it is interesting to see how things are different or similar in different places. The moment you drive from Nice across the border into Italy, it is obviously a different place. Things are built differently, there's a different atmosphere. A very pleasant one at that. If you stop at a French rest stop on the freeway, things are well-organized and clean and somewhat reserved. In Italy things are more buzzing and lively.

The Italians don't seem to speak much more English than the French. They just have no hangups about it, so they're easy to communicate with.

Twice we had a hell of a trouble finding our hotel to spend the night. In Genova and in Pisa. We arrive late, when it is dark, in cities we don't know. I had printed out maps and directions, but somehow the cities were very confusing, so we had the greatest trouble finding where to go, or even just finding the center of the city. Street signs aren't very good, most of the streets are one-way, and all landmarks are unknown. First, in Genova, I think it took stopping 4 or 5 times to ask for help. And people are very helpful. The first two times nobody spoke a word of English, and I didn't yet speak a word of Italian, so I couldn't even recognize left and right. And to my surprise nobody actually knew the square we were going to, even the policemen. But a few people spoke some French, and we gradually pieced it together, after an hour and a half or so.

I still haven't really gotten the moblogging and in-the-moment blogging thing down, and I didn't have more than an occasional dial-up connection, so, as usual, no postings while I'm traveling around. But sooner or later I'll probably figure it out.


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7 comments

14 Jul 2005 @ 16:12 by jstarrs : Hey!
Despite everyone having this idea of 'EUROPE' where we're all in the same bag...you only have to cross a frontier or a border to find out that Europe is dependant on it's parts and not an intrinsically existing 'thing.'
Every little place will have it's own cyber café, though.
Most pretty expensive (while on holiday down at the sea, a café was charging 0.16 cents an minute which works out at 9.60 euros an hour!!!!)
In which case, précis everything!!!  



14 Jul 2005 @ 16:55 by ming : Europe
It is splendid to explore the diversities of Europe. Yeah, certainly not all the same thing. Old, old cultures with all their own peculiarities, traditions, language, etc. And still we manage to be "Europe" together, even that doesn't always go perfectly smoothly.  


15 Jul 2005 @ 13:34 by vaxen : Europa...
and the Bull. United we fall, divided we stand. Good to hear you are, at least, getting a break from France! ;)

http://www.byki.com/  



21 Jul 2005 @ 06:58 by Ge Zi @24.126.199.23 : enlightenment
Hi Flemming,

looking at the image, it appears you had to go all the way to Italy to get enlightened.
But you seem to be rather non-chalant about it ;-)  



21 Jul 2005 @ 22:25 by ming : lightenment
Yeah, I get enlightened a little bit every day. So I'm just getting my daily dose.  


28 Apr 2016 @ 21:36 by Destrey @188.143.232.32 : DqlOBussYmYhgVF
Sarah, you may be aware that one of the best selling books of English history was produced by a fellow who mended pans for a living. While in prison for the crime of being a Baptist, John Bunyan wrote �ri8;Pilg22m’s Progress.” His trade was that of “tinker” and mending pans is what tinkers did. Think of this while you’re tinkering about with ebook software. Hopefully, you won’t be imprisoned for anything, but let’s hope your sales parallels that of the 17th century pan-mender.  


29 Apr 2016 @ 04:57 by Jenay @188.143.232.32 : QuQtekGCmpqK
the trend is that communication costs are going down. But unless we get to a point where mobile communication is fully sponsored by adnrmtiseeevt, I don’t see how these costs are dropping to 0. So that is why I believe there is still room for a pay-per-tweet model, as long as the tweet moves from the mobile space into the web and vice versa.  


Other stories in
2012-05-03 00:04: An evolving path
2012-01-02 13:52: 2011 Accomplishments and 2012 Aims
2011-11-17 02:20: Your inner piece
2011-02-01 00:05: Slow Mo Flow
2011-01-22 18:40: Recognition
2010-08-23 00:36: Where's Ming?
2010-07-20 14:24: Getting other people to do stuff
2010-06-22 00:27: Inventory
2010-06-19 23:10: Conversations
2009-10-28 12:31: Then a miracle occurs



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