Flashback Friday: Italy

It's well known that Florence played a central role in the birth of the Renaissance. During my visit to Italy this past spring I learned about the various factors that converged to foster an environment conducive to intellectual and artistic flourishing. These factors included economic prosperity, patronage of the arts, political stability and civic pride.

While there I learned how much the Florentines valued intellectual exchange and the love of learning. Purportedly the literacy rate in Florence was twice that of other cities in Europe and Italy itself. (EdNote: I read this in a book about booksellers row during the Renaissance. Fact-checkers are welcome to correct me here.) Books were highly valued and ancient books most of all.

All this to say that my selection of Florence as a destination was richly rewarded when I planned my Italy trip, a 70th birthday gift from my daughter and son-in-law, this past spring. While there I took 40 pages of notes and what seemed like a thousand photos. Upon my return I began processing my experience by writing about it. Here are 16 blog posts about my trip abroad.

1. Initial Thoughts after my first trip to Italy

2. A Brief Overview of My Italy Adventure

3. 850 Years Old and Still Looking Good: The Battistero di Parma
4. The Galileo Museum in Florence Is Worthwhile Destination

5. Liberation Day: Italy Celebrates Victory Over Fascism, With Expressions of Gratitude to the U.S.

6. 1000 Rooms of Splendor: The Palazzo Pitti
7. Bob Dylan in Italy

8. The Death of Galileo

9. The Scarpelli Mosaici

10. Michelangelo’s David… A Showstopper

11. Daniela Meza Sigala: Florence Artist’s Seriously Whimsical Paintings

12. The Teatro Farnese in Parma

13. The Duomo in Florence: A History, plus Photos

14. One of the Most Famous Paintings in Florence: Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), by Antonio Ciseri

15. The Bargello: Another “Must See” Museum In Florence

16. L’Ippogrifo Stampe d’Arte: Mastery of a Grand Tradition 

Have you been to Italy? 

Where should I go next?

Leave a comment.

Where Have All the Workers Gone?

One of the stories in today's Wall Street Journal 10-Point (a daily WSJ eNews update), has to do with Americans traveling again. An accompanying article carries the headline "Travel Is Back, but Airline and Hotel Workers Are Not." 

In separate article, the same theme rears its head. Railroad gridlock is bogging down U.S. farm shipments. Why? The railroads can't find workers. "Delayed trains and scarce railcars are impeding crop shipments this spring, causing grain-storage facilities to fill up, backing up fertilizer shipments and temporarily shutting down production at ethanol plants. Railroad operators said they are working to fix the problems, but struggling to find enough workers."

Where have all the workers gone? When I did a quick search, the first thing I saw is that a large swath of jobs require Covid vaccinations in order to work there. This may be a contributing factor to many employment situations including the childcare worker shortage. On that particular front there was a push a couple years ago to require childcare workers to have 2 years of college experience. I personally think having experience as a mom would be better than college. College costs money so working parents will make even less money going to work if they pay more for childcare.

When you add up childcare, suitable clothing and transportation costs, one wonders how necessary that second job really is. Especially after taxes. And maybe this is another part of the labor shortage.

I saw a Tweet today that says the problem isn't a shortage of workers, but "a shortage of jobs that aren't awful." 

So here's the another question. Are there systems in place to import workers? Yes, there are. But then we face the next hurdle, the dearth of affordable housing. The lack of housing stock is creating a new housing bubble. Prices are going up faster than wages, and faster than builders have time to build them. (And they have a shortage of workers, too!) 

Here's a Tweet about the restaurant trade. This comment was in response to a comment about high school baseball games being cancelled because of the shortage of umpires. "Same thing with the restaurant worker shortage. People have spent years talking about flipping burgers like it’s the lowest form of existence, and treating people who do accordingly. Now those people are mad that no one wants to work anymore."

Round and round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows.

Wordless Wednesday: Checking Out Charleston

Tips for Road Warriors

Business travelers and salespeople who spend a lot of time on the road all know that despite some of the exotic locations and events they attend, traveling is no piece of cake. The hilarious Planes, Trains & Automobiles, starring Steve Martin and the late John Candy, gives a pretty good glimpse, albeit over-the-top, of the kinds of situations you have to be prepared for when you travel. Missed connections and lost luggage being just the tip of the iceberg.

Because I’m on the road today, attending the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, I woke up thinking I could offer a few of my own tips for travelling.

Efficiency
Travel is all about efficiency, since you cannot carry your whole office with you. You’ll have to make decisions that encompass what you pack and what to leave behind. It’s a bit like editing. You may wish to amplify all your ideas, but there’s just not enough space. Movie directors, too, shoot far more footage than what appears in the film. There are some pretty good shots that end up on the cutting room floor. So it is with packing for a trip. Bring along only what you need. For sure, don’t leave behind your cell phone recharger.

Purpose
I always keep the purpose of the trip in the forefront of my mind. Everything else, from how I spend my time to what I bring along, ties in directly to this.

Airline Security
Please stop complaining about the way we are treated like cattle by the TSA. Yes, many of them could use some basic customer service training, but when all is said and done it doesn’t change anything to get red-faced and agitated. Keep the sage wisdom of St. Francis in mind: Accept what you can’t change. One more tip: wear slip on shoes and socks that don’t have holes in the toes. Sometimes, though, I have to wear lace up shoes. I always carry the bottom half of a broken plastic shoehorn in my back pocket to more easily get my shoes back.

Sleep
It is very important that you get the sleep you need, especially if you are going to a week long event like SEMA in Las Vegas. Be sure to plan in your down time ahead of time. If you need to bring sleeping pills, do it.

Shoes
The SEMA Show has somewhere between ten and fifteen miles of aisles. Even the parking lots offer miles of trekking, I recommend a second pair of shoes. I rotate my shoes every day so that any rubbing that occurs happens to be in a different place each day. I have seen people get blisters on their feet from all the walking and it is definitely not something you want to experience, not with two more days of walking ahead of you.

Trip Reports
Make notes on the business cards you receive so you remember follow up items. Take time each day to record your notes from the day before. It is the detail that makes the report interesting and gives it value. Assuming that the details are relevant to the purpose of your trip in some way. And personally, I like to finish writing it before my plane touches down at home because my next day in the office will already have a backlog of work awaiting me. Getting that trip report out of the way is one less thing to worry about so that you can hit the ground (office) running.

Bring a Little of Home with You
I like to bring a few CDs to play in the rental car while I am travelling. Today I have Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind CD in the car along with his Blood On The Tracks. I often have a card or something sentimental from my wife or kids in my briefcase... or something related to home on the wallpaper of my desktop.

Here’s a link to some other tips from a real road warrior. This guy is obviously a veteran and his notes are practical.

Any tips you wish to share?