This was originally posted on blogger here.

Ring!

I wake up at 7:30 am when Reed calls me. I slept in because I had a no sleep period where I couldn’t stop thinking about Naples. I shower and dress, and as I’m about to leave Reed calls again and says the taxi has arrived. What? We have until 9am to be at the second training session…

Oh well, grabbed my stuff and ran downstairs. Snatched another of those awesome Albergo del Golfo croissants and ran outside. Put my bag in the trunk of the taxi and jumped into the right side seat. Away we went.

We took a different route to the City of Science. This time we went along the coast the whole way, which took us up windy mountain roads and past incredible vistas. The area became a bit posh, and the cars increased in size. We spotted our first SUVs, and one of them was an American giant. Anyway, to my chagrin my camera was in my bag so I didn’t get any pictures. Me tristo molto (I’m very sad)!

Coffee

We went to the same place as yesterday’s lunch to grab some caffeine. The expresso shot I somehow ordered was really small, really strong, and really good. I’ve got to do that again! I did find this kind of place is called a paninoteca (sandwiches) or a salad a te (sandwiches), and its hard to tell which.

Plone Training

This time we delved deeper into the arcane yet compelling mysteries of Plone. I finally grokked Z3 Adapters for real, and fell in love with Z3 Events. I want to try out lovely.tag too to make all kinds of fun things. My notes are many and hopefully enough. I do know that like the Plone training we took in February, it will take some time to really digest what we learned.

Lunch

We ate at a place next to the same place as yesterday. This place didn’t have the coffee of the other so I think it is a paninoteca. I got two pannini havles, one being filled with incredible tomato bits and tiny chunks of what I suspect is pork. The second was a vegetable pannini but even the bread couldn’t save my disdain for the leafy green inside. We chatted up our instructors and met a German Phd student named Florian who was attending just the training and was heading back the next day to Munich.

More Plone Training

Lots of subtle tricks and good advice followed. Rocky Burt and his crew did good stuff with the training and it was worth the time and expense to come.

Registration

Since we went to pre-conference training we got to go to register the night before the general registration. Which was good because the City of Science staff had a wretchedly slow system built on Windows Vista and an Excel sheet. Reed and I chatted up a pair of English code monkeys and made some new friends. We got some nice swag, including a bag, t-shirt, clipboard, pen, and a humongous bag.

More Pictures

On the taxi back to Albergo del Golfo I did my best to capture the feeling of Naples. Some shots are complete junk but I think I nailed some good vistas. Reed mocked my insistence of taking lots of pictures, but then I infected him and he took shots as well.

Socializing

In the evening me and Reed joined a Plonista meeting at the Piazzo Vicenzzo Bellini. It was only a kilometer away up the Via Toleda, but we got a bit lost. The walk, as any trip through Naples, was interesting and illuminating. And the temperature was perfecto.

So the Plonistas descended like a storm on a ristorante at Piazzo Bellini. The poor staff was terribly overwhelmed. Food took at least an hour to arrive, but everyone was good natured about it. Met up again with Florian and some other Germans and we chatted about Plone, German education, version control (look up Git, a SVN replacement for versioning), and many other fun things. I remember Stefan, Lutz, and a friendly Trieste Italiano named Ansel.

I ordered a pasta dish made with olive oil, parmesan cheese, broccoli, and pignoli (pine nuts). It was really, really, really good. The pasta was cooked perfect ala dente, and the broccoli was tender and delicious, and the pine nuts were fresh. I had no bread and really considered licking the plate clean.

Good times the whole day.

---

2 comments captured from original post on Blogger

TJ said on 2007-10-10

I'm so glad you're enjoying Italy, Danny. Hopefully you will have more time off than just to eat, so you can explore the town and whatever else you can see nearby. Go in to the various piazzas. Go to the churches. Look at the art that many Italians are lucky enough to take for granted!

A few things to try --

Gelato! Get some freaking gelato. You will not be sorry.

Get more pizza.

Stop drinking Coke Light and try their version of orange 'soda' (the lemon version is excellent as well).

Overeat at dinner one night. On purpose. It isn't hard as the food is so excellent there. Then, ask for some (ice cold) Limoncello. It is a lemon alcoholic drink, but it works as an excellent digestiv. Another fun thing to do at the end of lunch (not dinner!) is to get some espresso, and chase it with a shot of grappa.

Get a 'doppio espresso' and stand at the bar you order it -- it will be WAY cheaper than if you insist on sitting at a cafe to do the same.

Walk the streets (in the not so run down areas!).

Buy some wine, olive oil and/or balsamico to lug back to the USA. The wine will have zero sulfites added!

Enjoy!

Thomas

pydanny said on 2007-10-10

My last day in Italy is for sightseeing and is coming out of my own pocket. The rest of the time is work and socializing. I do plan to take one evening of work for sightseeing things. The problem is that I just got out of things and its 7:18pm now and its getting dark already.

Gelato... sounds like a plan!

I'll drink the orange soda just for you Thomas!

I already overate. Monday night I ordered 2 antipasta and 3 entries. It was awesome.

Alchohol comes off my tab so I am shy ordering it. But I have been chasing my food down with good wine. I'll get the limoncello tonight.

Doppio expresso you say? Consider it done!

I've been down many streets, maybe some dumb ones at that... fortunately not around Piazzo Garibaldi yet. But I'll have to go there for the train station when go sightseeing south of here at the end of my trip.

Thanks for the advice Thomas!