Luxury Liner

Some more company visits this week - an inbound visit from Masterfoods - better known perhaps as Mars Corporation elsewhere in the world - who spent a very informative 2 hours talking with us about the promotion of cat food. Not my thing really, but certainly the cat lovers in the room were enthralled!
And an outbound visit with Fincantieri, shipbuilders extraordinaire! If Elan build boats, Fincantieri build floating hotels. The new boat we went to see was one of the Princess Lines boats - due to set sail in 10 days for Greece before heading off to the Carribean.
It was an amazing construction - at one point we were almost 70 metres above the sea. To be honest, it was a bit over the top for my taste, but I think it is fair to say that there is something for everyone on board - Indian art next to fake star ceilings, a casino and micro brewery alongside a mini golf range (on deck! what happens when the wind gets up? we wondered whether the balls were on bungy cords, just in case!)

The beginning of the end?

A momentous event this week - the last mandatory class all together. From Monday we are in electives so will not be all together.
The selection of electives has been an interesting process. Rather than choosing what to do, it has more been a case of what not to do.
For me this has been the following:-
1) No Finance - which ruled out options and derivatives and other such delights
2) Nothing on the weekend of the 30th / 31st March - we are going to Vinitaly, Italy's largest wine trade show
3) Nothing between the 5th and 11th of April - I am going on vacation to Sardegna (hooray!)
So basically, everything else is mandatory.
Flavio told me earlier that he hasn't taken Innovation Management which starts next week. Basically because he is avoiding Monday classes! So everyone has their own criteria!
Maybe a better way to think about this though is the end of the beginning - as the Vodafone ads here say "Life Is Now"

First day of Spring

It's the first day of Spring
It's freezing!
(but sunny nonetheless)

Gostilna in Bled

Last time we were in Bled we went to a local restaurant (a Gostilna in Slovene) near the lake. This time around we went to the same restaurant - and predictably ate the same food - ljubljanska, fried cheese, beer and pancakes to follow, with a grappa or digestivo to round up the evening nicely. We had a great night but all those carbs and fried food after an early start and a long day meant that we were all pretty exhausted by the end of it.
As usual this didn't stop us from taking loads of photos...
We slipped and slided through the snow back to the hotel nearby, then had a party for Janet and Angelas birthdays and an impromptu karaoke session.

Bled (again)

Monday morning and we left school at 7 for our study trip at Bled School of Management is Slovenia. It was an early start and the pit stop at the Marche on the Slovenian highway was very welcome!
Bled School of Management is small, but impressive and we had a lively session on change management with the part time students in management that are at Bled. The tag line is the School with a View.
As it turned out this view was pretty distracting! The sky darkened in the afternoon and then it started to rain. Then heavy rain. Then frozen rain. And finally snow.
And it snowed and snowed until late in the evening - beautiful but freezing and a bit dangerous underfoot - especially for the girls that were mainly in heels as we were in formal dress code.
The following day we were a bit late on the bus (operating on Italian time) but made our way through the snow to Elan, a manufacturer of skis and snowboards, as well as powerboats in a village in Slovenia near the mountains. They have some interesting ski technology and it was great to hear from the Director of Marketing about their brand and positioning. It was also good to see the power boats and to do some virtual shopping about which would be best for when we have made our millions!
In the afternoon we went to a dairy in Ljubljana - hence the return of the silly outfits and worse hats! The operations are amazing, almost all automatic, but these are tough times for the Slovenian dairy industry and with our MBA training under our germ-proof hats, we all think that they face even more challenging times ahead. We did our bit though, as many of us bought yogurt in the on-site shop. Massimilliano will be eating yogurt for the rest of the week - and long into the weekend I think!
Then back on the bus once more, and onto a meeting with the Mayor of Ljubljana in the City Hall. Lovro presented him with a picture of the Ferdinandeo Palace (our home base) but I am not sure whether it will be gracing his walls or not! Maybe if we had managed to give it to him in a frame....! The Mayor is fairly new to the job, he used to head up Merkatur, Slovenia's Tesco equivalent, until political wrangling occured and he was unseated. We think, after his award winning performance, that the mayor should watch out - Lovro could be next in line for his job!
Business in Slovenia is interesting as the privatisation process that the country opted for has resulted in government investment in almost all businesses. Obviously this mixing of business and politics is not always ideal, or certainly the Mayor may have thought so when he was booted off the board, but the country seems very prosperous given this blurring of boundaries.
In the evening we were supposed to stay in Ljubljana for dinner, but a critical mass of people wanted to get back early so we cancelled dinner and left early back to Trieste. The last photo here is the snow at the service station on the way back to Trieste.
The second half of winter had hit Trieste too - with the Bora blowing hard and cold when we got back. I went with Max to get a pizza then struggled home against the cold.

A relaxing Sunday evening

Sunsay evening a group of us were at Massimo's house for dinner. I had popped around to pick up my camera and ended up staying for the afternoon, and then the evening. We were uninspired when we went to Pam, but ended up having Bagna Cauda (aka Bagna Calda - or hot bath) a Piemontese hot garlic and anchovy dip with raw veggies and bread. And some wine of course! In fact we underestimated the amount of wine we needed so its lucky that I live around the corner and could dash home and back again with extra supplies. We finished the evening with strawberries - which have just come into season and are delicious - full of flavour and so different from the ones that we receive in Hong Kong that have been raised in a hot house and then suffer from being on the plane for a number of hours.

Bubbles and Bollicine

Bollicine is bubbles in Italian. The reason for the repetition is that Saturday night was the night of bubbles for us. We met for aperitivi at Bar Walter and the early spring had lured everyone in Trieste out on the streets for a drink. Having taken 20 or more minutes for us to get the first drink, we decided to move on to somewhere where the drinks could flow more freely.
I'm not sure why we started on bubbles when we got to Cafe del Mar but it obviously seemed the perfect drink, as when we moved onto La Vida - the wine bar next door - we stuck to bubbles. We might be spending more time at La Vida - its a place that I have been for wine a few times with Ciccio, his flatmate Mattea, and Ale in the past - but we have never been there as a group before. The barmen were really friendly and also generously gave us a free bottle of bubbles, and a vat of free pasta alongside the normal fruit and nibbles - this time - chocolate cake.
We had a lot of laughs, and ended the night in Mandracchio, burning off the calories from the chocolate cake and pasta with a bit of dancing!
On the subject of Bollicine, it is also the name of a new bar alongside the canal that looks lovely but wildly expensive by Trieste standards. Massi and I have decided that we will go in there for a drink when we are here for our graduation ceremony. The original idea behind this was that by then we would have a job so could afford the prices. But currently internships are being offered at Euros 1000 a month or less. So maybe the graduation drink will be at Giovanni with the wine from the barrel in plastic cola bottles...

Making the most of the sunshine

We were still celebrating the early arrival of spring on Saturday.. The original idea was to go to an osmizze in Val Rosandra, but we have a lot of work to do right now, so instead we opted to go for pizza in Barcola. Giulia and Walter knew a place with a big terrace so we squeezed into Giulia's Ka and set off.
I was trying to be healthy, so ordered a "Primavera" (Spring) - basically a salad on a pizza - a bit strange, but one i had put dressing on it it tasted quite nice!
After pizza it was getting chilly, but still quite sunny, so we followed the pizza with the first ice cream of 2007 (at least for me! Tough Triestines have been eating ice creams throughout the winter - very impressive.)

For your viewing pleasure....

As promised, here it is - the @Week interview for your viewing pleasure! We have just watched it in class, where we are studying finance in one of Haki's masterclasses...
School closes at 2 though, at which point we are going back to Barcola for pizza in the sunshine before we carry on with the work. We have a lot to do right now and the bus leaves for Bled Business School at 7am on Monday.
Comments on the video are welcomed!

What's in a name?

I don't know but I am not sure that the Ars Trio - soon heading for Trieste - will be getting many international bookings... maybe a name change is in order?

International Dining

After bubbles in Barcola, I went home and had no desire to cook! So Vlasta and I decided to head out for dinner.
We tried to get into Marinos (better known on the blog for drinking wine in the alley, but I hear its great for food too) but its always full. So we wandered around the corner and stumbled across a Greek restaurant. Its the first time I have eaten non-Italian food since I have been here - at least in a restaurant - I cook a lot of Asian food at home.
And it was fabulous - I think the whole Greek community of Trieste were there with us drinking Greek wine, and eating feta cheese.
We will definitely go back, but unfortunately we didn't look at the name. If anyone does want to find it though, its between Piazza Unita and Piazza Borsa, and there is a large sign saying Ferry To Greece outside!

Sunshine calling

Blue skies and sun shine all week, and being in class til at least 4 and in school until at least 6 has been tough. So by the time we got to Friday enough was enough and a few of us headed off to Barcola to Califonia Inn (not a typo, it doesn't have an r!) to sit in the sunshine & drink prosecco. With the bottle we were given a fruit plate so spent a couple of pleasant hours in the sunshine, drinking bubbles and eating strawberries, kiwis and pineapple, watching the sun set - magic.

Readers

Sometimes when I write the blog it feels as though no-one reads it. It brings back memories of my internship on Hong Kong’s Radio 3 in my first summer at University, when I used to sit in the studio and talk about the things to do in the next few days – the movies, the shows, the exhibitions and so on, and wonder if anyone actually listened. I still remember being amazed when I was in the car coming back from the supermarket and I heard myself doing a book review on air – it made the whole thing feel real somehow.
Well, the same thing has happened now with this blog! I have been corresponding a bit with a journalist called Beniamino based here in Trieste, who found the blog online and wanted to talk with me about it.
So last night I met him and a colleague in Piazza Unita and did a short interview for their web TV station – it will be aired on Thursday night at 7pm. It was amazing talking with people who read what I write as they don’t know me, but know all the things that we have been up to – or at least the ones that make the screen!
I will post the link to the interview as soon as I get it.
Hello to any new readers that surf by as a result!

Job Search

I have no idea yet where life will take me after the end of the course, but it is a hot topic these days with MBA XVII students. Many people have been for interviews, but mainly for internships – a chance to work for free to gain some experience – but more than a little soul destroying for people who have already worked and are interviewing for free jobs alongside university fresh grads – with no guarantee of future employment once they would need to be paid. Oli has a job, and Angela yesterday received the good news that she has been accepted by Loreal – so congrats!
But for everyone else the interviews continue – and I hope for me that they will soon start… If anyone reading wants to start the ball rolling then please get in touch...

The Bag

Arrived in one piece! Thank you BA!

The bag has arrived in Italy....

... apparently.
It should have been here at school at 330 - its now 5pm
This is not a good sign I think! But fingers crossed....

Hong Kong

This weekend, I went home to Hong Kong for the first time since August, when I left to come away to MIB. It was fabulous to be home and lovely to see everyone again. It was also lovely to have such a great excuse to go home for - congratulations to John and Liz for their wedding - and to Adam, Hannah and Emily for their newly enlarged family!
It was, I suspect, the last chance for the Famous 5 - John, Andrew, Becky, Fiona and me - to be together (although we would like to plan a reunion somewhere exotic at some stage!). it was terrific to see everyone, even if we didn't have enough time to chat properly!
It was a long way to travel for a weekend, and now that I am back I appreciate even more the azure blue skies, fresh air and sunshine here in Trieste, poor HK is choking with the pollution and having been away it is much more shocking than when I had never left...
Now if only my bag could make it home....

Osmizze Crawl

A sunny Sunday and I met Massimo and Luca for a coffee and a walk in the sunshine. We got down to the molo (jetty) near Piazza Unita thinking we would have a quick walk then head back to study. But it was such a gorgeous day it seemed a waste to spend it inside...
So the books stayed closed and we went for an Osmizze Crawl! We got in the car and met Chris and Dodi up at school, then headed off to the Carso area.
Chris is a pro at spotting frascas, and soon we were following a Hansel and Gretel-esque trail down country lanes to our first osmizza.
We picked a table in the sunshine near the vines and ordered platters of ham, cheese and bread - and litres of terrano. It was a fabulous afternoon - like a British pub lunch. but with better weather and better food - and a cheaper price!
Having spent a while at one osmizza, we jumped back in the car, and got back on the frasca trail, then found another osmizza, where we basically did the same as we did in the first one!

Reluctantly we ended the day back at Massi's house - working on the finance project and then on an essay for the visiting American professor, ending way too late, but the sacrifice was worth it.

Saturday Seminar

For the first time last weekend, we had a seminar on a Saturday - not fun. It did however give us an excuse to get together for lunch though - and Massimo was making stinco - pork shin. It was great to be able to leave from the lesson and be fed - and in exchange I translated some financial reports on an Italian bedding company for the finance project - so good practice for the Italian too...

Villa Russiz

Following on from the ham visit, a quick bus ride then Villa Russiz for wine tasting. Villa Russiz produces some fabulous wine, red, and the famous Friuli white which we sampled with vigour on Friday afternoon. The Villa is lovely, and the business has a social role - a portion of the profits go to supporting underpriveledged children. Making the bottle of wine I bought a charitable donation?

Ham, ham, ham

So after the factory tour - it was time for the presentation and for lunch.
The presentation went reasonably well - the CEO seemed quite happy - and then we were on to the best bit of the afternoon - ham and wine!
The weather was beautiful and so we grabbed wine and bread and ham and spent some time outside, taking hundreds of pics in the sunshine. A small selection of them are here!

Finally Friday

Friday morning and we finally were on the bus heading off to San Daniele...
The village is located near Udine, close to the Austrian mountains, and the tradition of making hams there comes from a combination of the cross winds between the mountains and the sea, and making use of the geography of the carst to dry the ham.
These days however, the tradition is recreated artificially in ham plants - but the one that we went to see was pretty incredible. It was all the more interesting because it was not solely robotic - the parts of the process that really relied on expertise in the old days are still done by hand today.
The factory was spotlessly clean, including a room for slicing that is 140 times cleaner than the standard required for an operating room in a hospital. We were also lucky enough to have the CEO of the company, a member of the family that has been making the ham for decades, conducting the tour.
All parts of the tour were interesting, but especially to see the testing of the ham with a horse tendon and sense of smell. The CEO said he was happy for people to take pics in the factory as it wasn't a case of seeing or not seeing the equipment they use - the expertise in the production is the important thing. Italy is so known for its food products and it was really terrific to see the passion that the management has for the product they make and sell.
It can't be a bad business either, from the look of the Porsche the CEO drove away in!

An almost all-nighter

Thursday time was running out for the presentation for San Daniele ham. Having worked together for a few days the group was in good shape and we had a very productive day. At around 7 Flavio and Carlos (from Florida) went off to play footy, and the rest of us carried on with the slides.
By 930 though, we were hungry, and it was time to join the others down at Lowenbrau, a pizza and beer restaurant on the waterfront near Piazza Unita.
The guys were celebrating - as team MBA XVII (plus Brazilian ringer in the form of Carlos, who scored 3 goals) beat the others - a combination of Masters in Insurance and Risk Management and Masters in Tourism and Leisure - by 8 goals to 3.
So we ate a celebratory pizza, washed down by beer and wine.
There is a saying that it isn't over 'til the fat lady sings. But here in Italy no meal is really over until we've drunk the limoncello ...
So having waited for the limoncello, it was nearly midnight when we headed back to the hotel... meaning we didn't finish the work on the presentation til nearly 3am - like university days!

Farewells on Wednesday

Wednesday we said goodbye to the first member of our class going overseas for an exchange. Nicoletta was flying out on Friday for 6 months in Guangzhou, so we needed to give her a good send off.
Giulia's boyfriend Roby has family connections to a place in Santa Croce - in the hills near Trieste, close to Prosecco. The agriturismo is normally closed on Wednesdays, but thanks to Giulia sweet-talking Roby's aunt, we had the place opened to ourselves. The food was magnificent and plentiful, and for E20 including all the wine and grappa we were all relaxed and happy again!
We were very well behaved though (or perhaps just exhausted after the night before!) and went straight home in a flotilla of cars after dinner.
Good luck to Nico on her Guangzhou adventure - its a world apart from Trieste! We'll miss her...

Boys Night Out (more or less)

Tuesday night was the first boys night out since the beginning of the year. Differently to Hong Kong, and I guess the UK, the boys night out doesn't seem to be a common occurence.
Maybe Tuesday night is not a natural choice for a boys night, but as we were at the beginning of project week, with no formal lessons, a lie in was possible on Wednesday morning.
So the boys were meeting at Bar Walter. Vlasta and I went to pick up the Floridians - our pet collective name for the Rollins College students - at their hotel and took them to the bar owned by a San Daniele ham company for yet more wine and prosciutto. The San Daniele bar, Dell'Ava is just around the corner from Bar Walter, so Massimo came over for a drink with us first.
Then by that stage we were together, so we were invited and went to join the boys for a drink at Bar Walter, the 6 girls somewhat destroying the boys only balance. A couple of drinks later (spritz aperol and proseccos all round) we decided that we really would leave the boys to start their night out, so Vlasta and I retired to the little restaurant on my street with the Floridians.
The boys went to Marinos, near Piazza Borsa.
About 1 hour into dinner the phone rang - the guys were wondering what we were up to. So after dinner we went back to join them for the rest of the night. It was the liveliest Tuesday I have had in Trieste so far - dancing in a small bar in via Nicolo Machiavelli, near to my house. I am sure that for our guests it was an eye opener - from what I hear, Tuesdays in Winter Park Florida are not so lively!
But maybe boys nights out are more like boys nights out than this one was! (Thanks to the boys though for letting us join them, it was a great night!)

Happy pigs make good ham

Yesterday a presentation with the visiting American exchange students for Principe - the largest producer of ham in San Daniele. Its like the Parma ham of Friuli Venezia Giulia - and those of us that are working on the project are loking forward to tasting the produce on Friday.
We had a great briefing from the company, and were able to ask lots of questions, then tasted their cooked ham - Praga - which was delicious - especially with a glass of the local white wine. We also learnt that happy pigs make good ham - presumably as long as they don't know their destiny!
The pig in the ads looked pretty chuffed with himself, even though he was wearing a daft crash helmet. So presumably the ham is good...

Chirp?

Vlasta sent me the link to a blog about Slovenia, on which the author says he isn't proficient in Slovene - partly as it is such a complicated language.
One thing is for sure - the Slovene language is a little light on vowels - the name for Trieste for example is Trst - the same word with all the vowels removed!
As we crossed the border last night, Vlasta unwound the window and greeted the immigration officer...
"Chirp," at which I started laughing.
It turns out what she was really saying was "Cir" (pronounced cherr), short for dober vecer, meaning Good Evening.
When we went into buy borek later, I greeted the baker with a friendy "chirp".

International Cinema

Slovenia again!
This time to see a movie - Breaking and Entering by Anthony Minghella with Jude Law and Juliet Binoche. (I recommend it!)
The bonus of going across the border to see a film is that we can watch it in English - a real treat for me. Its been about 8 months since I saw an English language film on the big screen.
The cinema in Koper is tiny, small but perfectly formed, and we sat in the front row with an unobstructed view so that we could stretch our legs.
Koper - or Capodistria in Italian - is lovely - the old town reminiscent once again of the Venetian conquests, with the lion appearing on the buildings in the main square.
Vlasta asked me to guess the name of the square - I didn't manage to come up with the answer - Tito Square!
We were a bit short of time, so grabbed Slovenian snack food for dinner - Borek - a kind of cheese-filled cornish pasty - very good, but I don't want to know the calorie count!
The border crossing seems more lax every time I go. Now the immigration officers don't even open my passport and we barely slow down as we drive through. I have been tempted on the rare occasions that I don't have my passport on me to take a small notebook and see if that works....

Lynching in Lokev?

If ever life takes you to Lokev, don't upset the locals......

Another outing - this time for work

Thursday morning we were at school early - heading for Fantoni and Snaidero - two companies about an hour and a half from here - office furniture and kitchens respectively. The visits were interesting - there are huge differences between Italian family run businesses and the multinationals that I am used to working with - and its fascinating for me to see the operations and hear from the management.
We did some virtual shopping - picking the items we would buy when we had the money / space. The red desk at Fantoni only had slightly fewer fans than the Euro 60 thousand kitchen in Snaidero (now we only need to virtually buy the house to go with it!)
The light in the show rooms was beautiful - so no more words but here are some pics of the group - and the factory....

Dinner Party

Wednesday was long, with an exam in the afternoon. I am now puzzling whether orange is a lucky colour in Italy as this might be why ale, oli and massimilliano all wore orange jumpers!
The exam meant that there was only 30 mins for lunch - in my case a terrible "toast" from the bar. A toast is basically a toasted sarnie - in this case white bread, cooked ham and processed cheese - not exactly appetising! The atmosphere was a bit flat in the afternoon, so it was great when Luca suggested dinner at his house.
After some confusion jumping on and off buses, losing Luca, and almost his bag too, we arrived in Via Foscolo. Dinner was toasts - much, much better than the school version - quality bread and processed cheese, and Massimo was running quite an efficient production line. Vlasta cooked enough pasta with tomato sauce to feel a small army, and my main task was opening the wine - tough job, but someone has to do it!
We found out an hour and a bit into the dinner that Prodi had resigned after losing a vote in Parliament - which sparked a good political debate, and caused the relocation of the radio into the kitchen so we could try to hear an update, amongst finding naff songs to sing along to.
Chris arrived later on, by trusty Vespa, and then Percy bearing an ice cream desert with Fruits of the Forest which we ate with teaspoons from the carton.
Then coffee - and another debate about the merits of Illy vs Lavazza Oro. (We prefer Illy - and not just for the packaging!) before walking home - significantly chirpier than when we arrived!

Can we say market research?

Hakan, whenever he asks a question in class, starts by saying "Can we say..." (Lovro and Luca both say "Just one question", and apparantly I say "I just wanted to say...")
But Can We Say has become a bit of a catchphrase for us all, in all occasions. We were on MSN while working on Tuesday and Chris mentioned to me that he was going to be in my neck of the woods that evening. We ended up in a San Daniele ham bar testing the product that I will be doing a project on next week.
Can we say market research? Maybe not - i don't think I'll get very far if I try to expense the bill!

A surprise for the New Year!

The Year of the Golden Pig is supposed to be a prosperous and successful one, and especially for tigers!
For me it has started really well - and today I received a lovely surprise - a card from the class to wish me all the best for the new year - with a happy pig on the front. And a keyring with a dog that vibrates when you pull its tail!
Beats Lai See any day...

Eating in Slovenia

Sunday night, Monday lunchtime - Slovenia.
Popping over the border for lunch or for dinner is something that I still can't get my head around. Sunday night we went off to Machnic, for ljubljanska and fried cheese washed down with beer.
Monday I had a meeting at school with the ham team for next week's project, then we went off for some lunch in Slovenia (again). This time we just had ham, cheese, bread and olives at an old place over the border near Lipica - the place was named as one of the best traditional restaurants in Slovenia - in 1984! It was a great meal, and a nice way to spend a couple of hours on a sunny Monday.
I am now travelling with my passport to and from school, just in case the need arises to dash over the border!

Back to Barcola

Sunday morning the baby Bora from the night before had calmed down and the sky was azure blue, the sun shining again. So I went out to Barcola for a run. I am not sure if it everyone else was making the most of the good weather, or whether they are also trying to find out if they are mad enough to do the half marathon in May, but there were a load of runners pounding the pavements, dodging the dog walkers, families and OAPs in head to toe fur.
The weather remains amazing for North Italy in February – I was so warm when I was running that I took my jumper off - and the slight chill made me run faster!

Osmizza in the City

During our city stroll (in search of the Karaoke bar – which we think we have located, near to the kickboxing gym ) we walked in the direction of Piazza Hortis. On the way Chris said he would show Percy and I the osmizza in the city. We wandered down the alley to what I have always thought was a house of ill repute (dark-ish alley, lots of old men outside) which actually turned out to be the osmizza in question.
Instead of the menu in the display box outside, this place has a year planner, with 30 dates circled in red to indicate when the osmizza is open. I plan to try it out in the not- too-distant future….