Back from Rome
Roman taxi drivers are insane. In fact any driver in Rome is insane. If there are 3 lanes clearly marked, Romans will queue in 5 lanes. They jump red lights, they use their horn almost orgasmically.
It's strange, when I go on business trips I hardly ever see the city I am in. I usually spend the nights working. This time I sat on the balcony of my room drawing up a white paper on ADO for SQL Server administrators. I realise that whilst cities generally don't change much, the facade of streets aside, the trees do.
And the Italian phone system's ring tone is the same as the UK engaged tone. No internet access for 3 days. 117 emails to go through, excluding my listserv subscriptions. Joy.