New Site

I've been in Italy for almost 3 weeks now and in that time we've now erected 8 turbines at 2 different sites.  This week has been my first week at a different site in Italy - even further south than the last one.  If you're really curious it's in Maida Catanzaro and it was about 6hrs drive from my last site.  The drive was quite an interesting experience if you consider getting lost like 30 times interesting.  I thought I could wing it with printed google maps directions, but following those is next to impossible because a "main" road in Italy can be this narrow half paved road that winds around a mountain.  Oh and street signs... yeah they basically don't exist.  So after about an hour of being lost and probably 12 U-turns I said forget this and hopped on the highways and took the long way.

I was sent down to this different site to help out since they're trying to do a last push before the holidays to finish.  Without getting into too many details this site has had pretty much every problem you can think of.  The one major problem has been the weather.  In the 5 days or so it's been sunny and 70, cold/rainy/lightning and 30m/s winds (which is like 67mph...)  The new site is actually pretty close to the water too so I'm hoping I can get Sunday off and do a little sightseeing. 

I've also in my one week heard some pretty crazy stories that basically screamed stereotypical southern Italy.  Again these are just stories and are probably better told in person.  But let's just say that it's all about the people you know around here.

Now I'll leave you with some pictures that one of my colleagues took of my site and the surrounding area.

One week food observations

After one week in Italy I noticed an interesting thing about the restaurants in Italy, well at least the local places I’ve been going since I’m not exactly in a touristy area.  None of the restaurants have menus or have even hinted that one exists or ever existed.  When going out with some of the Italians I work with, they simply ordered whatever it was that they wanted.  Maybe they were ordering simple things that any restaurant should have or know how to make.  Then I went out with one of my German colleagues to a different place and it was the same.  The waiter just simply asked us what we wanted, gave us a few recommendations and that was it.  Maybe it was because he knew we didn’t speak or read any Italian, but it was still interesting.  That said – the food on the whole has been great.

For dinner tonight I had a fresh salsiccia e fonghi pizza or sausage and mushroom for you English speakers.  Best 4 euros I've spent so far.  It was made fresh right when I ordered it with hand tossed dough and super fresh ingredients all cooked in a wood fire oven.  I'm pretty sure in Italy pizza is considered "fast food", well if fast food was like that in the US I'd be a very happy man.

Oh and the breakfast I've been eating is your standard European fare of pastries, breads, cereal and yogurt.  No cheese or meat platter though.  Coffee is excellent and super strong.  I love the tiny little cups with the single shots of coffee.  

First day at work

So Italy has been a mix of what I expected and a lot of not at all what I expected.  I expected the weather to be warm and sunny, lots of mountains/hills, picturesque views, a driving nightmare, full of beautiful women and tasty tasty food.  Well there are lots of mountains/hills, picturesque views and the food has been really good.  But it has also been cold, wet, muddy, super windy, surprisingly urban and full of crazy dogs.

Working in Italy is not at all like the US.  There's actually a pretty interesting mix of people that I work with.  For my company there's an Italian, German and American.  And we work with an Italian crane crew and delivery company and then a German and a Portuguese erection team.  Luckily the one language that everyone "knows" is English so whenever one group talks to another it's always in English.   There also hasn't been a lot of work to do yet this week since we've had high wind days pretty much every day I've been here.  It's also rained constantly which means the entire site is a perpetual mud pit.  

I haven't had too many chances to sample the local cuisine but I have tried some pizza which was pretty good since it was made fresh to order, with some super fresh ingredients and in a real wood fire oven; oh and it was only 4 euros.  I had dinner with one of my co-workers in the hotel restaurant and it was weird being there in jeans and flip flops eating in this fancy white table cloth restaurant.  I had like a full 4 course meal which was simply exquisite.  There was nothing extravagant about the food, just good fresh ingredients prepared simply.

Oh and one last thing - right near my jobsite there are these 3 crazy dogs that will just run out in front of your car in the middle of the street and start barking like mad.  And you don't want to hit them but you also can't see them since they're like pawing at your tires.  Crazy italian dogs.

First few days in Italy

Here is my first post on my brand spanking new blog.  I figured that this would be the easiest way to share what I'm doing with everyone.  

11/20/10 – Today I started my long journey to Italy.  The first of my 3 flights was from Sacramento to O’hare and luckily I was upgraded to first class for that leg of the flight.  It was only a 4hr flight but 5 gin and tonics and a very nice lunch made the flight go by super fast. 

On my 2nd flight – O’hare to Munich I was in the way back of the plane in row 48 but somehow I lucked out and there was no one in the middle two seats of my row so I had the whole row to stretch out in.  It’s too bad that seats were rock solid, had no padding and if the guy in front of you reclined the little tv screen would be only 10“ from your face.  The only two good things about that flight were the decent movie selection and the hot hot Lufthansa flight attendants.  Tall, short, blonde, brunette...  Thank you Lufthansa.

On my 3rd and final flight I again somehow managed to luck out and not have anyone in the seat next to me and it was probably the only empty seat on the plane.  But all those gin and tonics were slowly catching up to me and it feeling like 3am only made it worse.  Needless to say I slept through almost all of that flight. 

Finally got to Naples and picked up my bag and rental car.  I got a Peugeot 3008 which is actually not that bad of a car.  The only problem was that I had no idea how to get to my hotel and I was very out of practice driving a stick-shift.  Somehow I ended up ok and made it to my hotel. Driving in Italy is not like any other place I've driven.  Lane markers are more suggestions and when you want to change lanes or merge you just kinda put your nose in the way and hope the other person stops.

Walking up to the hotel was super weird – they were blasting American Pop 40 songs outside at like 8pm.  There were tons of lights up everywhere – which I later found out was because next door there was a Discotheque.  The room was nothing too fancy, although it does have a bidet.  The beds were plenty comfortable – especially since I’d been sitting in uncomfortable airplane seats for the last day.  The only complaint was how noisy it was. The walls were paper thin so I could hear everything going on next door and if the guy above me drug his chair on the floor I could hear it screeching.  

I'll post some pictures later after I actually take some.