At last, Top Gear in Italy

February 25, 2008 · Filed Under Italian TV · 2 Comments

Some time ago, I wrote a little post with some suggestions for improving the TV here, one of those suggestions included adding a decent motoring programme, like Top Gear which I got back in the UK.

Well, for a couple of months now I’ve been buying the Italian version of the Top Gear magazine, and it is not at all bad. Then I noticed a few ads, including one whole bus which was covered in an ad for the Top Gear motoring programme.

Finally, car mad Italy gets a good programme about cars, motorbikes and all things motoring, I thought. About time too, even if the programme is part of the Top Gear franchise, and therefore, not Italian in origin.

However, there is a downside. Isn’t there always? The downside is that to see Top Gear you need to have a subscription to Sky, which, incidentally, we almost had, but for some mysterious reason (possibly because I was always a bit short with the Sky telesales people - I hate telesales), our Sky subscription was never activated, even if we now have Cartoon Network and CNN.

What the heck, I can at least read about exotic and un-environmentally friendly cars in the colourful Top Gear magazine. And Italians finally get a magazine that is a) not as dull as ditch-water and b) is not a thinly disguised car manufacturers brochure.

Tags: ad, ads, buying, car, cars, good, Italia, Italian, Italians, Italy, magazine, motoring, People, read, Rome, sales, Sky, subscription, Top Gear, TV

DIESEL

January 28, 2008 · Filed Under Italy · 4 Comments

Nope, I’m not going to waffle on about eco friendly fuels, but in my continuing micro-attempt to raise the feel-good factor for Italy in these troubled times, I’m going to have a look at an Italian brand, which, at first, for quite a few years, I did not know was Italian. Not a surprise; I did not even know how to pronounce Versace until a more fashion conscious friend corrected me. Read more

Tags: Armani, Business, company, Diesel, good, Italia, Italian, Italy, made in Italy, market, Maserati, People, product, profit, sales, strong, town

Knock, knock!

January 16, 2008 · Filed Under Life in Italy · 1 Comment

Who was there? A nice man who explained that he was from some gas safety company or other. He even had a nice little badge. Then he told me that he was here to carry out a ‘gas safety check’ and asked me if we had any other gas fired appliances. I replied that we did not. Then he whipped out a little gas alarm thingy from his briefcase, no box or anything, and was about to ‘install’ it. An operation which basically consisted of plugging the thing into the wall. He even demonstrated it for me. Very kind.

Recognising a district sales patter, I enquired whether I would have to pay for this all this gas alarm goodness. ‘Yes’, he replied breezily. I asked the price. ‘170 Euros’, came the reply, and credit cards, cash and, probably the odd kidney or two, were acceptable forms of payment. Maintenance was included as well, but he did not say if more cash would have to be handed over for some plan or other. Bit steep the price, I thought, and then I effectively said, ‘No thank you.’, but he would not leave until I had called my other half and asked her if she had seen any of the two notices he had supposedly left. She had not.

That was it. Bye, bye Mr Scam man. He looked a bit peeved, but left rather hastily.

This guy had been plying his wares throughout the condo, but I don’t know whether he had managed to hook anyone, although he implied that he had. After this nice man had moved on, I kept a weather eye out for him and noticed that he had rung one of our neighbours’ door bells. She had not answered, but a little later I noticed through our spy hole that her door was open, so I went to have a go at preventing the little man from conning her. Luckily he was not there. Anyway, I explained what had happened to her and she thanked me for the warning.

A very clever form of high pressure salesmanship, or should that be ‘con’, and it would have been rather difficult to have proved that you had been hoodwinked into buying something that you can buy on the open market for around 50 Euros! I know, I checked.

If you live in Milan, watch out for this ‘approach’, and do not get caught out - single women and older people, beware. Although dressed casually, this guy had quite an official air about him, was over 6 feet tall, around 30, thin and had a pony tail. The sales talk was quite polished, as if he had done some course or other.

Interesting experience, and he almost caught me out. Almost.

Tags: bad, beware, buying, company, con, condo, Milan, People, sales, trick, watch out, women