Visa Vie

It is 5:30am, Monday, May 31 - not quite Memorial Day in the states - and today I head home for two weeks. I do not yet have my working visa, so I am only allowed in Italy for 90 days in a 180 day period. Thus, I must head home.

I am excited to get home and see my family. I have missed them greatly. I am also somewhat disappointed to be leaving work. It is very exciting to be part of a start up, particularly when you get to share everything you have learned over the past 20 years, and there is so much to do. We are just 4 months away right now, and I still have not officially hired anyone. I had hoped to have a few coordinating producers in place by the time I left. While home, I will continue to interview over the phone to get these positions filled.

I don't have a lot of time right now, but I can tell you since last I posted here, I have been so many places. On Saturday, I returned to Venice for the first time in nearly 39 years. As I was 4 the last time I was in Europe, I was surprised how much of Venice seemed familiar. It is a beautiful city and it did not "smell" as I had been warned.

I went with Michelle Graham, a fellow ex-pat, Claudio Rivebene (our head of IT), his American-wife Sherry, and Francesco Carpelli (our casting director helping to find show hosts). It is always nice to have Italians with you on any trip as they are very interested in sharing all they know. It really heightens the experience. Plus they can get you in places that no tourist would ever find.

Lunch in Venice was off the beaten trail (Claudio's suggestion). I had the squid with ink and polenta. It was OK. I am trying to eat all of the local cuisine. When in Rome....

Saturday afternoon, we drove to the site of QVC-US Vicenza remote and saw many American friends (Alan Massaro, Jen Volansky, Russ Fama to name a few.) We stayed at the remote for a few hours and Francesco and I briefly interviewed one of the show's guest (Irene Sira) for a shot at a show hosts job. I think she has potential, so at least I may have something work related come out of the Saturday sight-seeing trip.

Dinner Saturday night was in a lovely restaurant in Vicenza, recommended by another QVC-IT employee from the area, Giorgio De Gobbi. This time a calmer Italian dish of pasta for dinner.

It was long drive back from Venice to Milan and the night did not end until after 2am. I do enjoy driving in Italy, as I was behind the wheel for the entire trip. I particularly enjoyed the crazy switch back roads encountered between the QVC remote location and Vicenza!

And You May Ask Yourself

I was a freshman at La Salle University in 1985. A popular song that year was "Once in A Lifetime" by the Talking Heads. An oft repeated line in the song goes, "And You May Ask Yourself, How Did I Get Here?"

Well, certain days here in Italy remind me of that song. In fact, as I was toured through potential housing by a relocation expert on Thursday, I had that 25 year old number ( 25 years - really?) ringing in my head.

After seeing 8 different places, I finally settled on a home in the village of Garbagnate. A beautiful, small villa with a swimming pool. Unfortunately, Friday morning met me with a phone call saying that a bid had already been placed on this home. "This is not my beautiful house."

That left the second home, an incredible 4 story villa in the town of Arese, as a fine second option. A truly "once in a lifetime" home and the largest villa in all of Arese (one of 4 identical villas). The family is sure to love their two years in this wonderful home.

This brings me to another point. How very happy I am with my employer. They have provided enough of an allowance to live in such a place. They are also providing me with a luxury automobile (Mercedes-Benz GLX) for my stay here. "You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile."

Via (Caffe') Dante

For the last 16 days, I have been living the mundane hotel life. My home away from home is the Hotel Una Cusani, on Via Cusani 13, Milano, Lombardia, Italy. The next street over is the very famous Via Dante'. This road is primarily a "walking street" that houses many of Milan's most expensive shops. L'Occitance has a shop. Sephora is located here (they had a rousing roof top party on Monday night that I witnessed from a far) and also Izod Lacoste. There are also many other shops that don't have brand names that I recognize, but do have high ticket items for sale.

A walk down this Via and you arrive at the famous Duomo of Milan. A duomo is the town's main Cathedral, but "The Duomo" is located in Milan.

Along Via Dante' you will find many street side caffe's (two f's in Italian). I have frequented many, but my favorite is the Caffe Dante'. The first night, completely jet-lagged, I aimlessly walked Via Dante' and a gentlemen waiter (Enrico) invited me to sit down. It was 9:30 and it was rather late to be having dinner I thought, but Enrico, sensing my delirium, recommended the spaghetti with seafood. It was excellent. Dinner time in Italy, by the way, is typically 8:30 - 9:00.

I have been to the Via Dante' 4 times and Enrico and I have become friends. Enrico offers me a different glass of wine each time. Tonight, while enjoying ridiculously good seafood pizze (Italian spelling) with basil sauce (not tomato), I became "in."

When one frequents a ristorante (also Italian spelling) in Italy you begin to get perks. Tonight, I received my own bottle of wine. Typically, the lesser wines are used as glass wines. The bottles are reserved for paying customers. I only had my customary one glass, but now the more expensive wine was served and the bottle is saved for me for the next two nights. I received this wine at a discounted price (I realize of course that I am now obligated for the next few nights - I don't mind the food & wine is good) and I also was served a free "Mierto" after dinner drink.

Mierto is a popular liquour much like Lemocello. Frequenters of the same restaurant in Italy often receive the entire bottle of Lemoncello at the end of the meal for free as gratis for coming so often to the restaurant.

Too Daze Gone

Since last I posted here, two eventful days have passed. I spent Sunday in the shining Northern Italian town of Bergamo, with the accent on the Ber not the gam (BER-ga-mo). A beautiful town, but the true highlight was driving down the perilous mountain road. Just crazy. The road pictured here is the tame part. It got a lot worse before it got better.

Today (Monday) was nuts in its own way. I spent nearly 5 hours reviewing video of potential show hosts for the channel with a casting agency, an interpreter, my boss Steve Hofmann, and the HR Director Cele (needless to say there were plenty of comments on looks, persuasion, etc). The candidates were remarkably good and what you realize is that the world is a pretty small place. While they were speaking Italian, you generally get the same mix of very good potentials and some very crazies. After looking at well over a hundred candidates, I am convinced that three can be hosts. 18 will get a second look.

Welcome to Italy

One of the major differences here is how human resources works. What I am currently tasked with his hiring around 30 people to do various tasks in time for the start up. Currently, I am interviewing for coordinating producer.

In this first week or so of interviewing there have been many highlights. For instance, my first interview - which was conducted in English - the candidate dropped the f bomb. In fact he told me that his last employer was not good, so he told

him to f-off. Needless to say, he didn't get the job.

When I asked my HR director Cele (who attends all the interviews and acts as interpreter when necessary) about if she thought his reaction was unusual, her response was "Welcome To Italy."

Yesterday after another fruitless interview, Cele's first bit of feedback was, "He was really cute." Can't remember too many human resource people ever commenting on a candidate's looks before. The rules are a little more lax when it comes to the questions you can ask as well.

You are allowed to ask if the candidate is married, if they have children, or if they are planning to have children. You can ask how old they are too, but there is no need because it is listed on everyone's resume (aka. curriculum vitae or CV).

Speaking of interesting hires, Monday I will review over 3 hours of audition tapes of host candidates. Should be crazy. The response has been good here in Italy for show hosts. Apparently everyone in Italy believes they belong on TV.

Today is Saturday, and I spent the days looking at potential areas in which to live. One is a place called Arese, which was very green (Italians way of saying open spaces) and Milano Due which is a gigantic expatriate community. I like Arese a little better because they have town homes available. Milano Due is all apartments. There are very few stand alone homes in Italy, and none withinin our rent allotment. I hope to see a few places this week so I can stop living in an hotel.

What? No Retail

Everyday here in Italy, I learn something new. Today I found out that there is no word for "Retail." Have I made a drastic mistake? It turns out that in order to say retail, you need to describe it in many words, and these words are not uniform. Wacky.

I feel I am making in roads with my Italian friends. Yesterday, I had lunch with Cele Raggi, our HR director. We ate at "The Blue Ship." Yes, this was the name of the restaurant and the only thing in "Ingelse" in the entire place. Luckily, Cele took pity on me and read me the menu in English. I ordered the Antigue Insalate (Antigua Salad), which was delicious. She also showed me how to properly dress an Italian salad. Ground salt, followed by balsamic vinegar, followed by olive oil. For those who know these people, Cele looks like a mix between Bernadette Voelker and Tara Logan.

Well, the end of another perfect day (which the weather was today) here in Milano, Lombardia, Italy. Ciao!

Marco

The Great Kreskin

Not that I am counting, but according to my QVC-Italia contract, I have a total of 914 days as an expatriate. With only a few of those days exhausted, I thought it might be fun to make 10 predictions on what might happen lo, these 30 months when I return to QVC- US.

10. The Philadelphia Eagles will not win a Super Bowl.

9. My son Jack will dunk a basketball and Teri & Andrew will each hit legitimate home runs.

8. I will learn to like olives, anchovies, feta cheese and detest American pizza.

7. I will be the only male Pong Champion to hold his title for three consecutive years.

6. I will have spent more time with my extended family in Italy than in the US.

5. Edith Keeler must still die.

4. 15+ QVC executives will have different roles, in or out of the company.

3. My kids will cry when it is time to leave Italy.

2. My wife will cry when it is time to leave Italy.

1. Cardona to Como will still be the best mind-clearing train ride of all-time.

American School of Milan

Yesterday I visited the American School of Milan, the place where Jack, Teri and Andrew will spend their next two years of schooling. It was very impressive. It is a small school, located south of Milan in the town of Opera. Each class ranges in size between 18 and 24 children. 52 different nationalities are represented and 40% are Italians. I believe the children will enjoy attending school here as the atmosphere was quite friendly and relaxed.

I also did my first bit of international driving. It really wasn't worth the hype. Just like driving in any big city, which I enjoy..

The only challenge now remains where to live. I love Monza, but it just too far from school. Over the next week and a half, I will investigate living in the other ex-pat communities of Arese and Seagrate which are a little more feasible for the kids.

Big Day Tomorrow

By Italy work standards, today was rather mundane. I did have my first interview that needed to be completely interpreted as my potential employee did not speak Englese. She may actually get a line producer job. I was quite impressed.

The other thing that was interesting was that today was the first clear day I have had at work and the rumors are true. I can see the snow covered Italian Alps from my office window. Very cool.

Tomorrow will be big. I am visiting my children's proposed school, the American School of Milan, for the first time. What makes it even more adventurous is tomorrow will be the first time I have driven internationally. Look out Italia.

OK after another night of Pizze, this time the Napoli with anchovies and capers, I am ready to shut it down. Buonasera.

Mil-Loud-O

Ok, so it has stopped raining. The rain has been replaced by ceaseless noise "hear" in Milan. Yesterday, the Germans (or at least I think they did) invaded from the north playing Oom-pa music all through town. My hotel room sits on the first floor (really the 2nd - a quirky numbering system in Europe where the American 1st floor is known as floor zero) on the street side. Literally at 4am a parade of oom-pa playing brass in feathered caps insured right down the street on which my room sits. Surreal.

Instead of brass horns, today it's car horns. Apparently the local entry in the Italian professional soccer league (Forza Azzuria) won the National Championship. Tonight there is plenty of drinking and making merry in the streets and "vias" of Milan are jammed with people. A complete zoo.

What do Madonna, George Clooney and I have in common. Well, we have all been to Lake Como. I took the hour train ride this morning up to the famous Alpine lake. Beautiful.

I spent the evening at my fellow ex-pat's Lisa Mazzenga's home for dinner in beautiful Monza, Italy. She has an Italian boyfriend name Francesco, who prepared a traditional 3 course Sunday (Domenica) meal. Exceptional.

Mil-Rain-o

If there has been anything consistent about my first week in Milan, it has been the rain. It rains everyday, and like clockwork, it rains on the way to the train to work and on the way from work. During the work day, the sun may shine or it might shine for a few minutes in the morning If you don't like the weather, wait a minute. Never was a truer statement made. For instance Friday morning, there was bright sunshine in Milan. By the time the 20 minute train ride to Cusano Milanino (home of QVC-Italia's temporary offices), was complete there was a driving thunderstorm.

Another thing that is consistent it the food. It is as delicious as advertised. What has been an interesting experience is the variety of people you have dinner with ,when working at an International company. Just this past week I have eaten with people from Japan, Australia, Sweden, UK, Italy (duh) and the States. Another reason why this will be a great experience for the kids.

I had dinner last night in Monza. It is unbelievably beautiful. This is the home of fellow expats, Lisa Mazzenga, John Thomas and Michelle Graham. It will probably be the Wennersten's future home as well. I am visiting again tomorrow. I will take pictures and post.

On Italian Time

Yesterday, Thursday May 13 was the most eventful day so far. My first senior managament meeting was held. We took a trip to Brugherio, the home of our new studios, I conducted my first interview, and I met with a casting director who will be a great help in providing show hosts.

The SMT meeting was perhaps the most mundane of them all, with each member providing an update on his or her department. Mine was relatively weak, considering I have only been here a few days.

The new Italian home of QVC was much more impressive The studios are amazing for a start up. While they are not close to complete, the entire staff was given a tour of the facilities. Very impressive. This was an important trip for many of the employees, as we are currently working in dingy temporary offices. It's nice to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

My first interview was interesting. It was with a salesman who works for EMI-Italia. The interview was conducted in English and the man would not answer my questions directly. I was like, "Is this how all Italian interviews are going to be?" My HR director was with me in the interview. Afterword, she assured me that this was not normal behavior. Most Italians will answer you directly. Needless to say, he will not be getting the job.

The casting director has been working with my CEO for sometime now, but this was the first I got meet him. I am excited to say that there have been many respondents to all positions and that Italians seem to have a great interest in working for a multi-national American company like QVC. I expect to have to review between 70 and 100 audition tapes by this time next week.

One thing that I am learning about Italy, is there is something called "Italian Time." For those QVC employees who are reading this, it is rather synonymous with Bot time. Everything runs just a little bit late, and it is ok to be a few minutes late for anything. Work goes late, eating dinner, trains, etc.

That said, I am Italian Time for breakfast and the train to work. Must go now.

A good deal of wine, A good deal of wine

Not sure what happened to my post of last evening. Oh, well. Needless to say, I have made it to Milan. Today was my first full day. Not a great deal of goings on at work. Language is a struggle. Most of my American counterparts are well beyond where I am. I am at least accomplished at getting on the train to work, and eating my free breakfast. Today at work, I found out that we cannot have the information that I had hoped on the show hosts cards. Strike one.

I did, however, find out that a car should be available to me this weekend so I can go sightseeing and visit the American School of Milan on Tuesday. My children will matriculate there. Apparently the 9th grade is currently on a week long field trip to Paris. What a great experience the kids are about to have.

I am having a great experience as well. Last night, spaghetti and seafood at an outdoor cafe'. Tonight, steak fiorentina at another fantastic Milano restaurant. And yes, there was excellent wine. A good deal of it.

Tomorrow, I begin my first interviews for the coordinating producer role. Should be interesting.

Thanks for reading. Ciao for now.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Well, after hours of trying, I finally made it to Milan. Sunday night's flight was uneventful, even if it was an hour longer due to transatlantic flights taking the circle route north of Iceland to avoid the volcanic ash cloud.

Thankfully, there were no problems with my bags. A concern, since I had not seen them since Saturday afternoon. Glad they were aboard. QVC had provided a driver, which took me to my small, but nice Una Hotel. I showered and got ready for work. Full suits are the attire here in Italy. The hotel hailed me a cab which took me to my final destination, QVC-Italia.

Once there I met with all of the folks that I have been emailing with, Gregg, Cele, Mattias, and Steve. I also met John Thomas for the first time. He is the guy who gets start ups started for QVC. He was very gracious and really showed me around the place.

I was shown detailed drawings of the set, I met with the set designer and human resources, and got my office set up. OK, I can't see the Italian Alps from my window, but at least I have a window which provides me a view of an upper middle class neighborhood in Cusano Miliano (a Milano suburb.)

After arriving at about 3pm, work was over in time to catch the 7:48 S4 train back into Milano.

Once in the hotel, I changed and went for a walk. I am right in the center of Milan within a brief walk of the famous Sforza castle and Duomo cathedral.

After checking them both out, I sat down for my first meal in Milan. A plate of Spaghetti Marinara at a street side cafe'. It was great!

OK - off to video chat with my family.

And This Time With Feeling

It appears that the Icelandic Volcanic Ash has cleared enough to allow the plane take off, albeit a bit late. If all goes well I will be in Milan by 10am (4am Eastern).

Today, did not pass without incident. While it was nice to spend extended time with Miriam on Mother's Day, it was not under the best of circumstances. So Mir would not have to drive to Newark, NJ for the third time in two days, it was determined that I would board an Amtrak train to Newark this afternoon. When I arrived at the Wilmington, DE (temporary) train station, I was told that trains were running approximately 2 hours late due to an incident near the Baltimore airport. You guessed it, for the third time in less than 3o hours, Miriam was making the round trip to Newark's Liberty International. Happy Mother's Day Miriam.

If I get in to Milan in a decent time, I am hoping to check out QVC-Italia in person for the first time. Really looking forward to checking out my new home.

Milano can wait

Today is May 8 and it is still t-minus 1 day and counting. Icelandic volcanic ash the culprit as Continental Flight 44 bound for Milan was canceled just minutes before it was to be in the air. I write this from gate 74 at Newark's Liberty Airport. After a long wait in the service center line (many passengers are still there) nearly 2 hours after the cancellation, I am currently awaiting Miriam to pick me up. She has seen way too much of the Jersey turnpike, and it looks like she will be seeing more tomorrow, if indeed the flight takes off. I am a boarding pass for tomorrow's flight 44.

Let the Packing Commence

Friday, May 7. T-minus 1 day until I'm off. Today will consist of packing, taking Mir out for an early Mother's day lunch and my last Andrew's baseball game for a while.

I have been asked a lot questions. Here are some answers:

Do you speak Italian? No. Shouldn't be a problem, after all I am responsible for a team of program hosts who speak it. I can't wait for my first coaching session. I expect it will go something like this, "Loved the energy, but frankly, I couldn't understand a word of it. Next time, could you be a bit more clear?"

Have you ever been to Italy? Yes. I was three. All I remember is that it was really hot. All the pictures suggest personal misery for me In all the photos, I had one sock pulled up and one rolled down. But I wasn't predictable (much like my comedy), I always varied the leg.

Have you ever lived in a foreign country? I currently live in Cecil County, Maryland.

How did you get the job? I was called into an interview during the investor's conference in March. I was being interviewed for a 4 month training job. I knew there was a larger job available, so I asked interviewer Steve Hofmann (my new boss) if I could talk to him about the bigger role. I'm glad he listened.

How is your family taking it? They have been great - after the initial shock. My 8 year old Andrew was the best. When told he wailed, "I have never wanted to live in Italy, I have never wanted to speak Italian." It is amazing how much thought young people give to this sort of thing. Apparently Portugese would have been OK.

Do you think your (tired) sense of humor will work in Italy? I've always felt my sense of humor was internationally timeless. Apparently, I am the only one.

What will you miss the most? Certainly all of my friends and peanut butter.

That's all for now. The end of another perfect day here in the blogosphere.