#16 - Italians Love Football

I was heading once more to Rome Italy. After arrival to Fiumicino airport I jumped into a taxi. The driver was a bit reluctant to take a customer, because he preferred watching a local football game. He had an old portable television with a long antenna installed on the dashboard of the car. Despite the age of the product, the quality of the picture was pretty good.

Finally the driver started the engine and we were on the road. I was surprised that the driver did not switch off the television. I started to be really scared when the speed reached 180 km/h on a highway and the driver was concentrating most of the time watching the football game and fixing the television. The old portable television was not designed to be used on the move and the quality of the picture went occasionally bad in such a high speed. The driver was hitting the television repeatedly. Anyway, it was possible to follow the commentary and most of the time the picture, as well.

I felt lucky when I arrived at the hotel in one piece. However, the Italian passion to football impressed me. It also proofed to me that if there is a will, there is a way.

Lessons learnt:

Learn to combine business and pleasure.

If there is a will, there is a way.

Life remains exciting if you retain your passion to sports.

There are beautiful football stadiums in Rome ;-)

#15 - Italian Job

All the roads lead to Rome

That was one of the rare moments I had no hurry at all. I was heading to Rome once again. It was going to be an exciting meeting to me, because I was supposed to meet important executives and I was the only representative from my business unit. This time I decided to make a relaxed start. My flight was supposed to leave late afternoon from Tampere airport, so I decided leave the office and enjoy a relaxing lunch at home.

After the lunch I started to pack my suitcase. That’s when I realized first time that my travel itinerary was printed on both sides of a paper. The targeted departure time was actually the departure time from Helsinki. However, my first flight was from Tampere to Helsinki and I was in a hurry.

I thought for a second and made a conclusion. It is impossible to catch the flight departing from Tampere, but it is also impossible to drive to Helsinki and catch the second flight from there. I decided to go for Tampere. 

I buttoned my shirt and trousers while my wife was packing rest of the clothes to my suitcase. In couple of minutes I was driving towards the airport. Time was really short (much shorter than my earlier record for the same route). What could I do to help the situation? I called to 0100100 and asked them to direct the call to Tampere airport. After the second call forwarding I was speaking with a Finnair ticketing officer. I explained the situation and kindly asked them to keep the plane waiting for me. When the officer asked where I was, I needed to a lie in order to keep the story ongoing. I was driving very fast (but definitely not over speeding). Closer to the airport I made another call to 0100100 and again after the second call forwarding I was speaking with the same ticketing officer. At the end of the call the officer told me that I had exactly two minutes before the gate would be closed. Luckily I was just approaching the airport. I parked my car next to the main door, left the car staying there and locked the doors. The ticketing officer was waiting for me outside the main entrance and gave me the flight ticket while I was running to the gate. I made it and the flight actually departed one minute ahead of time schedule. My nerves were broken and I was sweating like a pig. That was probably the most stressful situation in my life. After calming down I decided that I will never do such a thing again.

Miniature reminding me about the flight that I barely caught.

In Helsinki I called to my wife and asked her to drive to the airport and move my car to a legal parking area. I felt lucky, as I did not get a parking ticket.

Lessons learnt:

Nothing is impossible - Impossible is nothing.

#14 - Italian Meetings

Usual Italian sight during my first visits to Rome.

One interesting co-operation project took me often to Rome in Italy. All the practical arrangements were taken care of by our Italian account manager. The office was located outside city area, as well as the hotel where I usually stayed. This was already my fifth travel to Rome in business and I felt bad that I had never seen the city. It was time to break the business routine. My colleague Mr W. and I had a nice walk at the city center in the middle of the historic attractions. After that we enjoyed a tasty Italian dinner and the sweet taste of Limoncello. That experience carried us easily through the exciting meeting the next day.

Pizza and Limoncello - Not a usual combination but it works.

As usual, the meeting was scheduled to start at 9 o’clock. I and Mr W. together with couple of local colleagues arrived punctually and started drinking some coffee. Around 9:30 most of our Italian colleagues had arrived, as well as the first customers. Because we were still missing most of the important customer representatives, we continued small talk and drank some coffee. At 10:30 o’clock most of the participants were already present and we considered starting the meeting gradually. The last customer representatives arrived around 11 o’clock, after which the meeting really started. After some discussion it was lunch time and we enjoyed Italian sandwiches at the meeting room. The meeting kept going on until evening, when it was time to take a taxi back to airport. 

That was a regular Italian working day. Italians know how to take it easy and why should you take meetings too seriously, if you can enjoy pizza, pasta, Limoncello and ancient culture everyday. On the other hand, it might be the Mediterranean climate that gets people relaxed. Maybe I could get used to the relaxed rhythm, maybe not. At least I have succeeded to enjoy the slow motion on a vacation at the Mediterranean area. That is a good beginning.

Lessons learnt:

Cross-cultural differences between Italians and Finns.

#13 - Footsteps of Tom Cruise

Point Loma panorama

I had learned to be rather carefree and effective business traveller. Business first was the priority and therefore I seldom had any plan for the rare free time. One of my trips was exceptional in that aspect. I was travelling another time to San Diego with Mr JJ., who had done tremendous Internet research prior to trip. We had a clear tourist plan for all the evenings, i.e. where to have dinner and the attractions to see.

The trip was short, but we managed to see the San Diego panorama view from Point Loma, paragliders at the steep cliffs of Torrey Pines Glider Port, U.S. Navy carriers at the harbour, as well as several good restaurants. One of my favourite places is George's At the Cove at La Jolla, where you can admire beautiful sunset while dining. Our main goal of the trip to join Top Gun, following the footsteps of Maverick in the iconic movie, but after a long fight with our Neverlost navigation system, we were lost and failed the visit the Kansas City Barbeque at the Gaslamp District area. We had to leave the city without Great Balls of Fire.

Lessons learnt:

Good plan – only half done.

San Diego Marina and Naval view

La Jolla