Rome Part 2: "Suit up!"

Right, so here comes the write up on the second half of my Rome-adventure. Obviously and without any doubt, the Sunday was an extraordinary history-extravaganza. Monday and Tuesday more the reason why we were there in the first place. Every year at kick-off, the agenda is very packed and the days are very long, so nothing new there. I woke up on with the cows around 6am on Monday morning to be ready for 7am, as our team was represented in a booth in the ‘lifestyle zone’, an initiative for healthier living, wellbeing, etc. The ‘corporate stuff’ kicked off after 8am and I knew that a long day of PowerPoint-presentations and meet-and-greets was ahead of me, so I loaded up with coffee, orange juice and blueberry muffins for breakfast.

Every year at kick-off I also dread getting hit by the ‘death by PowerPoint’ syndrome, you know, the never-ending slideshows and dull presentations that no doubt would put even the most energetic person to sleep. So far, I don’t think I have fallen asleep at a presentation, at least with my current company, but it sure was touch and go a few times. This year was very interesting though, and it did not feel like we went through 4 billion slides at all. It felt like most of the material covered was relevant to what I do and most of the time it felt like the presenters had put a fair bit of effort and thought behind their session.

The last ‘break-out session’, as they are called in our world, lasted until 6pm on the Monday and after that, we had about 45 minutes for a ‘shit, shower, shave’ (there's some UK slang for ya!). That is basically the quickest way possible to get freshened up in order to look alive again, a bathroom Formula 1 pit stop, one might call it. Only in the UK!

Just before 7, a shuttle bus picked us up to take us to a restaurant in downtown Rome. On the way, we also got a guided tour passed some of the more famous sights, like Castello St Angelo, the Vatican walls and more, but unfortunately it was quite dark outside and people, including me, were too excited about getting fed to pay any attention to ancient Roman history.

Dinner was great; we were treated to real traditional Italian country-food like roasted vegetables, barbecued beef and chicken, sea bass, country potatoes, Italian wine, and tiramisu for desert. The dinner entertainment consisted of 3 old gentlemen singing playing the accordion, guitar and trumpet. They were singing classic songs like ‘Amore’, ‘New York, New York’, and good old ‘Volare’ complete with foot-stomping and hand-clapping, over and over again. As soon as I saw them, when they greeted everyone that walked into the restaurant, I was thinking: ”Hmm… this must be the Italian equivalent of a Mariachi-band. Would it be ok to refer to them as a Mafiachi-band? Oh snap! I am too funny!” Obviously, no one else thought so.

When we got back to the hotel after the dinner I had a few more people to mingle and meet with and when that was finally done and all pleasantries had been exchanged, it was 2am in the morning. Poor me, as the next day started at 6am as well. 9 hours sleep in 2 days is just not enough, but luckily the Tuesday morning was easy listening, so no real complaints there. A nice lunch, a change of clothes and we were on our way home again!

Going home is always a very exciting part about traveling with work nowadays!