Frecce Tricolore

Today is the 31st of may and in Rome, Italy there will be a great airshow just outside of the world capital. The team that perform this is called Frecce Tricolore Aermacchi MB-339 which is a 2 seated light attack aircraft and advanced trainer.

Yesterday I saw a teaser and I must say that they are really great. They did low altitude “sniffing” just above our heads, that was a real adrenalin pumping experience! So if you are in Rome, come to Ostia at 13:00 today!

Happy Sunday

How about Berlusconi

Media all over the world are often making fun of the President of Italy, Mr Berlusconi. The media often paints a picture of an incompetent clown, that he is stupid and corrupt. Is this true?

Well you have to know Italy and their history. The country have only been united for about 150 years and there are great differences from the people in the north and the south. There is a need for a strong person to govern Italy, there is no doubt about that!

Ok, let us get to the core then; is Berlusconi a clown? I say no! The media and the opposition creates this clown by taking his comments out of its context. Berlusconi is a great leader and a business man and he is made of the right stuff to govern Italy. Of course you may think different and I challenge you to post you comments and I will meet your argumentations!

Viva Berlusconi for ever!!!

Italians and their mineral water

In Sweden, where I come from we drink water from the tap, it tastes really good and its healthy. In Italy however you can drink the water from the tap, but not in all cities.

For the Italians however this is not a big problem since they drink about 180 liters of bottled water each year and per person. The general Italian doesn’t drink from the tap but he drinks from the bottle. Water is served at lunch, at the break at dinner and it is always a real good water.

At first I was skeptical by the hysteria that water by the bottle would taste better but after a while I realized that water from the bottle is far more good tasting and now I can’t be without it. The only time I use water from the tap is when I brush my teeth!

Of course the Italians drink other things than water, they drink Wine as well but that we will write about in another post!

I list some nice brands of Italian water so you can taste it and feel the difference, I am sure you will find them in your well served grocery store.

Things to see and do in Rome

In this first post of 2 I will give some advices for you as a visitor. What you can’t miss and what you could miss.

First of all let us get clear with how Rome is structured… In the central of Rome you can always get around by foot and it is not necessary to take the public transportations. Then if you would like to go to the outskirts of Rome then you have to rely on the transports mentioned above.
I suggest that you don’t take any prepaid guided bus tours since they only take on the bus and then drive you quickly pass the monuments. Take a walk instead!

In the centre of Rome you have monuments that you can’t miss and I will list some of them here so you can check them off.

Fontana di Trevi: The most famous fountain in the world. If you don’t know about it you should know that it was built in 1762 and it has figured in the film “La Dolce Vita” with Anita Ekberg. You will find the fountain in Piazza Di Trevi in the central of Rome.


Piazza di Spagna: This is a beautiful post in Rome and all around the year you will see people sitting on the stairs and eating ice cream.

In the piazza you will find the marvelous fountain “Fontana della Barcaccia” which have the form of a giant fish. When you are in the zone take a look at the luxury stores, you will find all the top notch brands like Prada, Gucci and Armani to mention a few.

The Vatican: Take this opportunity to visit the heart of the catholic church and if you are lucky you may even see the pope! But be advised, you are probably not the only one to visit the Vatican so I suggest that you go there early to avoid the big crowds.

Things to see in the Vatican then; well don’t miss the Sistine Chapel and take a tour to see the tombs of the previous popes.
If you go there on a Sunday you will experience the weekly convention where the pope speaks from his balcony.

Villa Borghese: I giant park in the centre of Rome, you can compare it to central park in New York.

Here you find an oasis of green and nature in the sometimes chaotic Rome. There is a Zoo in this park but please take my advice and don’t go there, it’s not worth the time neither the money.

This is the end of part 1 in visiting Rome hope you like it and please leave a comment to let me know what you think and what I can improve... stay tuned for part 2!
Ps. Bring the waliking/jogging shoes

3 beautiful italian women!

Book a Hotel in Italy Online

How do you book your hotels when you go on vacation? Do you go to your local travel agency, do you search and find your hotel online then take contact with the hotel in person with faxes and cc numbers back and forward or have you discovered the benefits to book online!?

There are several online booking portals on the internet, the biggest are Venere.com, Booking.com, Hotels.com and Expedia.com and they all provide similar services. At Booking.com you pay when you do the booking but at Venere.com you pay when you check out at the hotel. I prefer the later alternative since I keep the money until I have finished my stay.

When I first started to book my hotels online I was skeptical since I thought that there would be more expensive and that I would run a risk by sending my credit card details online etc. I can assure you however that these worries are unmotivated and that it is completely safe to book online and in almost every case cheaper!

Here I provide some links to internet portals for booking hotels online, have fun!

Venere.com Booking.com Expedia.com Hotels.com

A bad italian manager

Some time I had a meeting where I work where have a manager that I don’t name here but his characteristics are very bad for a manger.

He has problems with listening to other persons, when he asks for the opinions of the other he doesn’t not really listen to them but instead he intercepts in the middle of the conversation without taking notice of what has been said. Furthermore he tends to be very inpatient and gets upset very easy.

Well I turned down the collaboration because a realized that it would way to hard working with him. Hi has his management position trough connections and history. He lacks a very important thing though, he doesn’t have the crew with him. Surely he notice this but he is to used to his manners that I assume that he will always be remain the same.

A manager like this hurts the company but also the manager himself, the sad thing is that when the manager or his higher managers take notice of the problems it tends to be far to late for repairing the damage done to the crew and the spirit.

A call to an Italian Call Centre

Last week I had to call Telecom which is the biggest telephone and Internet provider in Italy.

The background is that one month ago I changed Internet provider and I was and still am waiting for a contract to sign. The call goes like this ( I am marked by A and the operator by B)

A God morning, my names is ++++++ ++++ I am calling because I am missing my contract. It hasn’t arrived yet.

B Yes, But you have to be patient!!!!

A Yes I am patient but now it has passed a month and I don’t want any administravie problems which will have the effect that you close the Internet connection.

B Ok, and what do you want me to do about it?

A Well isn’t this the assictance call centre?

B Yes, but I repeat, WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT?!

A Well I don’t know but if you don’t like your job you can always change! I called you to inform you that the contract hasn’t arrived!

B Ok I will send it again even if it’s not my job!

Well you see in Italy the medium salary for a call centre operator is 800 Euro so they are all rude and aggressive and the worst thing is that they don’t leave their names, they are completely anonymous, so they can behave like they want to without running the risk of being fired!

The magical italian women

Here I give you some videos from youtube to see what I mean by the italian sensuality...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjAEcgoTsGg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THjMVfaf5bY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7U83sponKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP_elCzZuog

Enjoy!

A trip to Capri

Well Dear reader, this weekend I have spent in one of the most amazing and maybe also one of the most expensive places in Europe… The island of Capri!

Capri has from the beginning of times been a resort for nobility and for people with a thick wallet and you see that immediately when you disembark from the ferry. The tourist harbor is has a big charm and gives an image of an old fishing village. However when you get to the first restaurant you realize that that is not the case, because when you have to pay 35 euro for a starter you know that you are at Capri and not Marseille.

Where to stay? Well I found a really cheap and good Hotel trough a site that is called www.venere.com it was a 4 star hotel for 67 euro/night. Good standard, continental breakfast and a twin bedroom.

What to do? First of all after the check in, I went for a walk around the island, there is a hiking track all around Capri. It takes a full day to negotiate the track but I can assure you that it is worth it. Bring a lot of water and jogging shoes.

Then it was back to the hotel, to shower and to get ready for the evening, there isn’t so much to do at Capri except going to a restaurant. I put on a suit, some Gucci perfume and then took off to the restaurant.

I was seated next to a group of Italians and not long after the wine came in they invited me to sit down with them and we had a really good evening together. I turned out that they lived there and the day after one of the new found friends took me to see Grotta Azzuro with his small boat.

It is amazing to see this cave. With its lights it becomes another universe and if you go to Capri you can´t miss that one!

In the afternoon it was time to say goodbye to Capri and take the ferry back to mainland, this time to the Harbor of Naples…

The Italiano Way

So you like or are interested about Italy? Well so am I, as a matter of fact I moved here 2 years ago. I come from a Scandinavian country but I have always been attracted by the Italian way of living and above all the culture and history. But hey this seems too good to be true, well I learned that Italy is not so easy to understand as I thought.

This blog is for you who are planning to go on vacation or move to Italy. Here you will read about how to get contact with Italian ladies, register for residence, how to get a job, things to see and much more… Enjoy you stay and spread the word!

The Italian Woman

Well what would be better but to start with describing the Italian woman. She is from my point of view the most beautiful woman in the world. You know if you are from America, Israel, Somalia, Scandinavia or from wherever you will notice a big difference. The Italian woman loves to be feminine. She protects here rights to be equal the man but she does it with class. Where in Scandinavia for example the woman has lost here femininity a long time ago.

In my office where I work in Italy the women always dresses elegant and sexy but with class. She loves attention and she loves compliments. She smiles and she is easy to talk with even if you are a regular guy.

I will give you a good example and I tell you this is not one in a million… Every morning I see the same thing.

I was going home from work and saw the most beautifully woman in my life, a thing that occurs every day but always with new objects;)

She had long dark hair, a black business suit, a white skirt which left just enough to let your fantasy do the work. She had a short black shirt, tanned dark stockings, and high heels. Every steep she took was a punch in the face. She was outstanding!

My question to you and maybe above all to you women; why is this a scenario that you only see in Italy?

Stay tuned for more real life postings!

How to survive the subway in Rome

Well in all civilized countries there is a public transportation that works. This however is not the case in Rome. The trains are old, they don’t work very well and they are too crowded. Furthermore there are only 2 metro lines in Rome, Metro A and Metro B and they only meet in one place, Termini! They cover a very small part of the town so if you are unlucky and have to go to some other place in Rome you have to get the bus (which will have its own post later on).

So things to think about: You buy the ticket in advance, this you can buy in a “tabbacheria” or any small shop. This functions as an entry ticket and you have to keep it all the way. The ticket is valid different depending on what type you get.

When you get on the metro you will notice that people in Italy don’t understand that they have to continue to move into the metro but everybody wants to stand in front of the doors. So when you manage to get inside, hold tight because the drivers are very aggressive in their driving so you will always see somebody fall or step on anybody’s foot. If you step on anybody’s foot, just say “Scusa” and everything will be fine.

When you get to the stop Termini, be advised. It is like the landing in Normandy. Inside the metro you have 150 persons that want to get off and outside you have 200 that want to get on. So when the “biiiip” sounds and the doors open it´s like being a quarterback on Any Given Sunday.

Keep your bags close to you, don’t look back, leave no man behind and never stop and you should get of healthy and well!