Manic Monday
Yes, I know Monday is now but a memory, and that it is now Wednesday. But Monday was a fun day!
Why a fun day? Well, aside from the usual stuff, I also made a vulgar suggestion to an artist I had never spoken to before - in Italian, then, after having retrieved the little one from his school, I met up with two American friends, Chris Bright and Sean Carlos for a couple of pints down at the good old 442 - in the company of the 5 year old bundle of energy. To cap it all, in the middle of Monday I received a request for a translation which had to be completed by Tuesday morning.
To cap things off, and just before I was due to collect the little one, it appeared that persons unknown had been trying to hack my Italy is in site, which turn turned added a dose of ‘frenetic’ to what had already been quite a hectic day. In order to block the potential hack and prepare myself for the worst, I whizzed around changing passwords, and making backups, just to be on the safe side.
Then came the news that the Italian mother in law had been admitted to hospital with breathing problems, which caused worries all round. The poor lady is something of a ticking time bomb, and years of chain smoking have left her health somewhat unstable. A great shame, she is a very sweet person.
Despite all the action, I managed to get the translation job finished on time, and the client was quite pleased to discover the nicely formatted, thanks to WordFast, final version lying in her email inbox on Tuesday morning.
As for the vulgar suggestion I made to the artist, who, as I have already mentioned, I had not spoken to before in my life, I am pleased to say that said artist was not the least bit put out by what some artists may have considered a potentially sacrilegious idea. Although I won’t mention exactly what I am up to, you can read more about the idea on my new Italy is in Italian contemporary art site, in this my ‘Art Meets Business‘ article over on Italy is in.
At least the drink down the pub was pleasent, and I was pleased to hear that Chris seems to be getting things sorted out on the looking for a job in Italy front. Sean was in fine form too, and we exchanged geek info about WordPress and he ended up asking me if I really was ‘just’ an English teacher, after I fired off some info about server file permissions (775 for most folders and 644 for most files, incidentally), after I mentioned the attack which appeared to have taken place. Yes, running your own web sites can be traumatic at times.
I finally got to bed at around 2am, think is was. Great, and Tuesday was to prove no less hectic.
Actually the activity of both days left me dog tired, and I ended up collapsing and falling asleep on the sofa with the dog last night.
At least today will be a little less fraught, I hope.
Not All Italian Websites Look So Bad
At the risk of being accused of being a pot calling a kettle black (Yep, I know this blog is getting rather cluttered), I have to say that after doing a little web based research for my latest project, my Italy is in Italian contemporary art site, I’ve come across some rather good looking, and, generally, well written English sections of Italian websites. Well, a family of them actually.
These sites form part of a mini-network run by the Ferragamo family, of the fashion house “Salvatore Ferragamo”. WIth the possible exception of the Viesca Estate site, all of the others are very slick.
I know they are at the top end of the market, but even so, it’s good to see what can be done. OK, so these people have money, of that there is no doubt, but, to their credit, they appear to know how to spend it rather wisely.
I hope they won’t mind too much, but I’ve stolen the list of links to each of these sites and popped them below, so you can have a quick gander, if you so desire.
Fashion
Salvatore Ferragamo - Fashionable clothes
www.ferragamo.com
Resort & Hospitality
Lungarno Hotels
www.lungarnohotels.com
Resort and Winery
Il Borro
www.ilborro.com
Marine Industry
Camper & Nicholsons Yachting Ltd - motor cruisers to dream about.
www.cnyachting.com
Nautor’s Swan - Lovely yachts - exploring the boats virtually is a pleasure.
www.nautorswan.com
Prestigious Rental and Villas
Il Borro
www.villailborro.com
Viesca Estate
www.viescaestate.com
As for this here blog, it’s going to get a facelift shortly.
Blog from Italy meets Volette.com
I met up with Nevadan Joe Tangredi, the guy behind travel site start-up Volette.com, and his Italian cousin Giuseppe, here in sunny Milan yesterday afternoon. Giuseppe works for Endemol, the tv production company, which makes a whole host of programs for Italian TV.
Joe, an ex-Capitol Hill legislative assistant turned web entrepreneur, and I chatted about a number of things including his Volette site and another very interesting project. He also told me that Volette is to launch an original new service shortly. Well, he did not actually tell me what the new service is, alas, but he told me enough to intrigue me.
Once I know more, I’ll write about it here.
It’s quite late now (12:30), and I’m a little tired, so I’m not going to write much more. But I can assure you that I’ll be writing more Joe and his other interesting project. Suffice it to sat that it’s something that could do an awful lot of good for Italy, if it gets off the ground. And I really hope it does.
Watch this space!
New Friends
A little before Christmas I was contacted by an American couple who were seriously considering consummating their love affair with Italy by having a serious go at setting up house and home here.
So it was that Chris Bright and his wife Jessica Spiegel came over to test the waters. Read more
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