Before the cruise

Royal Caribbean have an office in Italy and phone reservation went on smoothly, even if my after sales experience with them hasn’t then been brilliant. People at the call centre were always nice, but lack of communication with their solicitors meant that the morning after my purchase I already got a phone call, asking for my payment (due 40 days before departure …fact is that I’ve made our reservation after such term). Bothersome to be called at work for such a communication problem on their side, but at least we weren’t charged anything extra for the “late” payment. Online check-in also hasn’t been the smoothest thing I can think of: a couple of calls to call centre were needed because some of the requested information wasn’t available on documentation we had been sent by email, and also because several labels on the website form were inaccurate. Also, Royal Caribbean website hasn’t been the most pleasant place to browse for information on ports of calls and services on board. Not a problem (luckily there are alternatives), but I really think this is one of those cases where a small investment in user testing/experience design could’ve made a huge difference in customer experience. Luckily this has been pretty much the worse part of our experience, so that’s not too bad either.

Vessel, Staff

Once we got to Venice, a complimentary shuttle bus took us to the pier, where nice, smiling staff was ready to give us our sea pass cards (IE our badges). As usual, while evaluating our options, we relied on the Internet. Reviews for the ship weren’t all brilliant, but once on board, I soon started to feel glad for not having put our blind trust in people who write what I now consider rude and unreliable content. On board we haven’t been able to find so many “rednecks”, and ship wasn’t in that bad state at all. Actually, I’ve just found out it had been refurbished a couple of months before our departure – lucky folks we are! Not only vessel was in good shape, but also all crew members we came across seemed to be extremely well trained, and were always smiling and ready to help. Also most of other guests – especially the folks at our dinner table (4 Germans, 2 South-Africans, 2 British) – were discrete, nice and friendly.

Itinerary

Itinerary’s been the main factor for our decision, and we haven’t been disappointed by our choice. We enjoyed all the places we visited, and also the two days of relax, sailing. This is how/were we spent our days:

• Split, Croatia
• Corfù Town, Corfu
• At Sea
• Chania, Crete
• Athens
• Mykonos
• Santorini
• Katacolo
• At Sea

Stateroom

Our ocean view stateroom was cozy and clean. No thrills, but still a comfortable accommodation, especially if we consider we were inside of a ship. We’ve had some minor issues with the A/C, at times only blowing freezing cold air, but mainteinance team showed up promptly when called. Another issue we’ve had has been with the toilet, which wouldn’t flush at times. I had read others stepped into the same exact issue, but luckily this caused no problems to us, and the outage always lasted for no more than several minutes.

Food, Drinks

Food’s never been a problem on board, with a pretty good selection of restaurants and bars, open from early in the morning untill 1am in the night. Meal quality at the main restaurant, the Gatsby at level 4 was nothing special (especially when it came to the deserts), but wasn’t bad either. Service was very good and professional, even if pace overall was very slow. It never took us less than 2 hours to finish our meal. Luckily our waiter Mauricio (from Chile) was excellent with his jokes and balloon entertainment, allowing time to flow much faster. Windjammer cafe (pictured on the right, click to enlarge) which was open for breakfast and dinner, from 06:30pm until 09:30pm was also ok, especially in the morning for breakfast, with a good selection of hot/cold items. Quality in the evening varied depending on the day, but never got above or below a certain (decent) standard, with deserts always being the weakest part (what a pity that Peak-End rule got apparently ignored). For between-meal eats there was Park Cafe, which was always open when Windjammer Cafe wasn’t. There I could find good snacks and salads. More selection would’ve been awesome, but I’m not complaining at all.

Facilities, activities

I’m not entitled to give an overview of what to expect, since all of our days have been spent either ashore or reading a book at the sundeck. We watched fellow travelers being entertained by the bingo, the pool parties, the night shows at the theater, the casino, and the various onboard fitness activities (in the ship there’s a gym and even a rock climbing wall). We haven’t done much but, despite many people were crowding the main pools area, we still have been able to relax on both ends of deck 10. The only complaint I have is that no one actually enforced the “no sunbed reserving” rule, so that many people could place their towels on a sunbed in the morning and keeping it busy for hours, without being there. I’d have appreciated if such belongings were moved aside, as stated on signs disseminated all around the ship.

Please note: I didn’t have my SLR with me, so all pictures in this page come from the State of The Net Flickr Account, and all rights are reserved. Hopefullly their usage here is tollerated. Please let me know otherwise, and they’ll be quickly removed.

What I liked, what I didn’t

The things I’ve loved the most are quite straightforward: a cool venue, an efficient  outstanding organizing committee, a great chance to spread much needed digital culture in our country, some great speakers/talks …and a pretty good lunch buffet

As for the downsides, despite being bilingual, I’ve found quite annoying to constantly having to switch between English and Italian. It would’ve been probably better if an official event language (IE English) was chosen and then used by all speakers. Also, I think that a few of them crossed the borders of self-promotion, and that’s been boring at times. This somehow brings out what I think it’s been the only area where the event felt a bit short: too little emphasis was given about inbound marketing and customer experience.

I’ve enjoyed my day a lot, nevertheless. It’s been one of those rare chances you have to get a comprehensive update on the state of the net and many related issues. From the start, it’s been crystal clear that the organizers did a terrific job setting up things: a great location within the old Trieste harbor area, a quick and painless registration, and event gadgets which were far above conference standards.

About the Talks…

The day started up with a keynote by Gigi Tagliapietra. I’m pretty much impaired when it comes to music, so that I’ve had a tough time understanding all of the music related metaphors he used. At any case, the talk reminded me that it’s always good to think outside the box. Hopefully my impairment didn’t prevent me from getting even deeper messages, nested within the notes.

It’s then been the time of Scotch speaker Euan Semple, who touched quite a few interesting topics, also laying ground for the discussion panel which followed up. Besides the main topic of his talk, directly related to his book (now in my wishlist), he brought up several other interesting insights. In particular, I’ve much enjoyed his comparison of naturally originated information structures Vs those which were created through human planning upfront. That makes so much sense if we think about social media, folksonomies and the way things are going, even from a technological point of view (do schema-less, NoSQL database come to your mind? I think they should).

Coming up next has been what I consider the best presentation of the day. Roberta Milano actually scared me off with her first few slides. All those data tables aren’t usually a good sign Instead, the gifted presenter quickly  escalated her pace, towards an effective slideshow on best practices, updates on the industry and other relevant info in the topic of tourism. All of this with a clear presentation style and a great presence on stage. This has actually been the only “business oriented” talk where I’ve felt proper attention to customer experience was given. And I think this is an important concept which companies do need to understand and always take into account when setting up their online strategies. Strategy, another important keyword she mentioned.

Several other talks which I’ve really enjoyed have been those of Linchao Li, on the Chinese e-commerce market, and that of Marko Rakar on government data transparency. The former’s been an eye opener for myself, whereas the latter’s been inspirational, to say the least. Also the presentations by Marco Massarotto and Matteo Menin have brought up interesting data on the e-commerce situation in Italy.

Honestly, I didn’t find the other talks up to par with them, probably due to the fact that quite a lot of self referencing was made by the speakers. Also, I think that more original content could have been brought up on stage. This is IMHO where more emphasis on customer experience could (and should) have emerged. But that’s just my 2cc.

It’s then been the turn of Andrew Keen. Despite I’ve personally found his theories a bit inconclusive (and his views quite confused – as also pointed up by Jan Hemme), I still think the talk added up value to the event; in fact, this kind of contributions can raise awareness of people who don’t have an high digital education. And, when culture doesn’t keep up with technology, failure’s often behind the corner. Let’s just think about automatic weapons in under-developed countries, about the usage of many toxic chemicals and asbestos when their properties weren’t fully known, and so on. So, despite the drastic tone of the speaker, the mix-up of different concepts he made, and his clear intent of selling his theory/book, I still think that the talk and the chat which followed still brought up some good points.

That’s been it for my day. I’ve been thrilled to see some good digital culture coming so close to home. So, I cannot but thank once again the people involved in the organization for the event: thank you guys, and see you at the next edition, which is hopefully also going to be this close to home!

If you’re curious, you can follow much of the event at the official event youtube page.

After contemplating Ferrara, Reggio Emilia, Mantova, Parma and Modena, we opted for Bologna, considering that it was the closest to us. And a mandatory stop towards most other cities anyways. It’s in fact a sort of hub for trains connecting North and South of Italy, so that we could easily reach it in several hours from Codroipo. It can be reached in little more than 2 hours from Venice Mestre station, hence it can be a good midway stop option, if you plan to go from Venice to Rome, or the other way round, by train.

We got to Bologna at about 12pm, and immediately started walking through Via dell’Indipendenza. Shops (brand stores, I mean) were more abundant than good sights, and the gloomy atmosphere caused by Fog did not tempt me to get my camera off its case too early. Believe or not, we went by Piazza Maggiore, the Statue of Nettuno and the Palazzo del Podestà without a single shot. There were actually ongoing maintenance works on some of the buildings, so that I was even less tempted to go for a click. After we got into Piazza Maggiore, we entered small traditional alleys (Via Clavature and Via Marchesana, in particular) though, and here I was finally compelled to take my camera out from its bag. My attention was caught at first by some wall signs, which I think might’ve been left there from WWII. First pic taken!

Via Marchesana (near Galleria Cavour)

After a quick look at Galleria Cavour, its expensive shops, and its surroundings, we headed towards Piazza Santo Stefano; there were repairing works to the church here as well, so that no pictures were taken. We kept on walking until we got to Piazza Ravegnana, where we found ourselves in front of the two towers (Asinelli and Garisenda), the landmark of Bologna. A shot was mandatory here.

Bologna Towers - Asinelli and Garisenda

After a couple of shots from the ground up, we decided to climb the Tower of Asinelli. We thought that the 3€ entrance fee was fair enough and that we could’ve got a great city overview from top.

Torre degli Asinelli Entrance

So we started climbing…

Climbing Torre of Asinelli

As we were reaching the top, windows started allowing us to see some of the landscape below, giving us a constant motivation to proceed upwards, without feeling the fatigue.

View from within Torre Of Asinelli

As we reached the top, a magnificent 360° view of the city rewarded us, and immediately soon made us completely forget about our effort to climb.

Piazza Maggiore from Torre degli Asinelli

Despite the fog, which we’ve now started to treat as an additional special effect for pictures, it was nice to be completely surrounded by ancient interesting architecture.

Another View from Torre degli Asinelli

After a few shots and a little extra pause to enjoy the scenery, we started to descend. With a few stops to take a few more pictures from within the tower.

Rays of light in Torre of Asinelli

As soon as we got back to earth, we got a quick snack (it’s really easy to find a place where to get a quick bite in the city), and then started walking towards the University district. It’s been easy to recognize when we’ve reached it, because of the young population hanging around, and the characteristic wall graffiti we’ve found ahead of us. Supporting Arabic revolutions in this case.

Wall Graffitis in the University District

After a quick walk around, the time to catch the train ride back home came, and hence we started walking back towards the train station, through Via Zamboni and then Via dell’Indipendenza again.

Via Zamboni

As an aftermath, we liked the city. It was pretty dirty and there were too much ongoing works in progress for our taste, though. The fog certainly didn’t make things much more appealing. Nevertheless, city history could be perceived everywhere, with ancient buildings and cool photo opportunities at most (if not all) corners.
Certainly, before we decide to come back, we’re sure, we’ll be wanting to check out other places mentioned before, since there’s been nothing which really prompted us to tell ourselves “We gotta come back”, as it’s been with other cities we visited in the past.

Yet, I’d like to to express my opinion on something which – I think – seriously hurts our country’s reputation and (further) damages our credibility around the world.

If you know nothing about it, it might be worth to recap that several days ago, during an experiment between the CERN and Gran Sasso laboratories, some researches have obtained remarkable results. You can find out more about this here and, more skeptically, here. Or simply here.

Cross section of the CNGS experiment through the Earth. (Image: CERN)

Acknowledged of these results, the MIUR (Italian ministry for education and research), proudly congratulated with scientists; and also took the chance to stake its merits, mentioning the 45M€ government funding for the construction – we can read – of a tunnel (?!?), between the CERN and Gran Sasso laboratories.

MIUR Press Release on Experiment Tunnel Construction (source MIUR)

Of course, such sentence makes little sense, since no such record long tunnel (obviously) has ever been built. As a consequence, derision immediately scattered all over the Internet, with funny cartoons, such as the following (reproducing a warning sign, of the kind you can find on Italian highways), circulating around the social web sphere:

Neutrinos taking over in the Gran Sasso (highway tunnel)

Obviously, it would’ve been wise (and more correct, I shall add) to call it a beam, rather than a tunnel. That was ambiguous (to say the least), and it’s not cool to make such mistakes. Especially on an official ministry’s website. But a badly written article could have come out of everyone, after all, so that I wasn’t that shocked. I got their point. And it’s not my habit to deliberately seek for causes for objection. Or to fuel arguments.

I was astonished, though, when I’ve had a chance to read ministry followup statement against the critics they had received. The somewhat arrogant reply (titled “ridicolous remonstrance”) goes (roughly) like this:

“it’s obvious that there’s not such a thing as a physical tunnel between the CERN and Gran Sasso labs. You should’ve got that! Of course, we were referring to the tunnel where protons run, and from which collisions originates the beam of Neutrinos, which then reaches the Gran Sasso lab, traveling through the soil. We funded the construction of such tunnel and related equipment”

“What the fu*k?”, I immediately thought. Dear minister, I could’ve understood if you were specifying that you improperly used the tunnel term (and the construction metaphor, for that matter), to refer to the (generation of a) beam. Or even admitted your ignorance in the field. But please, do not insult your populous’ intelligence, saying that the tunnel you mentioned was referring to the one which is used to “run” particles. The one you said you’ve helped to build, just the day before. YOU stated that such tunnel has been built between the CERN and Gran Sasso laboratories, not within one of the facilities. And now, you’re even supporting such (dumb) statement with an (insane) followup. Come on, please. That’s simply making an a*s out of yourself. You must have guts to say opposition’s making all of this instrumental. You’re providing them with all evidence. Seriously, do yourself (and your citizens) a favor, and think about it twice before writing such kind of bullsh*t on an official press release. I have nothing against you, really. But please, have the decency to admit your mistakes and realize it’s just you providing the fuel for all these arguments.

With this said, I think I better get my a*s to work now. On a side note, I wonder how certain people got where they are. And how they even got out of high school. I’m astonished. If you’re Italian, I think you should be too. But let’s just go to work now. And pay their wages… :-/

Immediately, I was surprised to notice so many waterfalls. Near and far from the Italian border. As a first experience, we decided to settle for the nearest ones (those in the Goriška region,to be specific). So, early in the afternoon, we left home and headed towards Kobarid, a nice small town (very well known to Italians for historical reasons – see the H. Hemingway novel A Farewell to Arms, if you’re curious) just after the border. It took us about 1h 30 to get there (from Codroipo, where we live); we arrived at about 1:30pm, just the right time to get a quick byte. Desy went for an health peach, whereas I opted for a much tastier (and, obviously fattier) bourek (some kind of sausage roll, which you can have with cheese, meat or) ham. We were then ready to walk towards our first intended destination, the Kozjak waterfalls.

The Kozjak Waterfalls

Trail from Kobarid To Kozjak Waterfalls

From the town of Kobarid, it’s very easy to reach the falls (map below can hopefully help you). We parked our car just after the Napoleon Bridge, and started the walk. After a couple hundred meters, the track was splitting. On the left it kept on going flat, whereas there was a stair going uphill on the right. We though this might’ve offered us some better view, so we opted for this one. Soon we’ve found ourselves inside of WWI trenches and walking on those paths which were once bloody battlefields. I’ve just discovered we followed what it’s called the Kobarid Historical Walk.

World War One Trenches near Kobarid

After several minutes, we joined back the track to the waterfalls, which was now entering the stream bed. We followed the track which runs on the side of it.

Bridge On Koziak Creek

After several minutes walking, we saw some kind of cavern getting closer ahead of us. The track was now starting to climb up a little now, and there was a left bend ahead of the wooden pathway we were walking on. As soon as we followed the path’s turn, we found ourselves just in front of a magnificent waterfall, which seemed to originate from a ray of light.

Trail To Kozjak Waterfall

And an emerald pool which had formed below. A picture is probably worth a thousand words here.

Veliki (Slap) Kozjak Waterfall

After taking a few shots of the waterfall, we decided to get back to the car, since it was getting late, and we were still hoping to be able to see our second intended destination, before dark. So we hurried to the car, picking the flat path this time, and just stopping for a couple of pictures from the cool suspended bridge.

Suspension Bridge On Soca River

The view from there is definitely fascinating.

Soca River From Suspension Bridge

We got our car and (after refueling) started to drive towards Bovec, a town a few kilometers north.

The Virje Waterfalls

We reached Bovec at around 4.15 and, following GPS directions, we’ve been able to reach our second destination for the day, the Virje Waterfalls. The GPS has been really handy here, since the waterfalls are a couple of kilometers away from the town of Bovec, in a small village called Plužna. Actually, it’s not that hard to reach them. From the Bovec town center, you need to take the main road going uphill. You then need to take a left, and follow signs for Plužna. Once you reach the village center, you’ll find a fountain, in front of you. Here you need to take a right (again, going uphill). From here, it’s just a couple of more minutes, until the (tiny) parking lot where you can leave your car.  A 10 minute downhill path took us to the waterfalls, which looked amazing, especially because there was no one else around.

Virje Waterfalls

The atmosphere there was just surreal. Nature at its best.

Virje Waterfall

Of course, it didn’t last long before someone else arrived…

Slap Virje - A Paradise Near Bovec

Ater a few pictures, we decided to head back home, following the road towards the Tarvisio border (up north) this time. We wanted to take a different route and see new things (albeit from the car only), since it was starting to get late.

We’ve seen many interesting things, starting from the town of Bovec, which is definitely worth a visit and spending some time there. In the area there’s moreover a dense presence of WWI ruins, such as trenches and even fortresses.

We’ve been satisfied by our day and decided that we need to go back to see some other waterfalls in Slovenia, sooner rather than later. It’s simply ironic to have seen lot of waterfalls around the world, but not those which are just behind our courtyard.

In this post I’ll give you some advice on how to be prepared and how to exploit such technique.

Before you go out shooting, the first thing I suggest you to do is to take note of scheduled sunrise/sunset times. You can take a glance here: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html.

In the morning, it’s then wise to show up about 40 minutes before indicated time, whereas in the evening it’s good to be at the desired location at sunset time. In the morning you can start shooting immediately, and keep on doing it until sunrise, at least for the first times while you experiment this technique. Then, with time, you’ll gain experience and learn how to immediately catch the perfect timing, just looking at the sky. Our brain is incredibly skilled in making us believe that we’re facing same lightning conditions. Actually, just a few minutes can dramitacally change how a picture looks like, though. Film (and sensors) are not as clever as we are.

Take the example here:

Mirage Casino in Las Vegas, at 9:15pm

and notice how the scene changed in just 3 minutes; following shot has been taken after just 3 minutes, on the same day (too bad the timing of the fire show didn’t match that of a perfect light):

Mirage Casino in Las Vegas, at 9:18pm

You can now see that all the nice details about clouds from the picture above have now vanished. And that’s just after a couple of minutes! The perfect conditions for such kind of pictures lasts about a minute, so that you better be prepared with your equipment, if you do not want to miss it.

Of course, both pictures are much better than what it could have been taken just a an hour before (this is to say how important it is lightning to photography, no matter how expensive your equipment is):

Mirage Casino in Las Vegas, at 8:10pm

Of course, if you wait too much, you’re also going to come across not so fascinating results.

Villa Manin di Passariano at Night

This might not be extremely bad, but they will probably lack the dramatic touch of pictures taken at the right time. Following shot has been taken 30 minutes before the one above. See how much more vivid colors are.

Villa Manin soon after Sunset

Usually you can get such colors between 40 and 25 minutes before sunrise/after sunset; a lot depends on your location and season, though. And, as stated above, depending on your speecific composition, the perfect lighting combination can last a couple of minutes only. It’s therefore something which definitely requires some practice, in order to get your eyes (and brain) able to spot the perfect moment when to click.

In the morning, we’ve been awaken by the guy from the tour we booked, who came 20 minutes earlier than expected. Obviously, we rushed to get all our stuff ready and get into the coach, worried that we would’ve had to face a couple dozens of angry other tourists. Luckily, it turned out that we were the only folks who had been picked up by this coach, so, as Australians say all the time… No Worries! We quickly reached the Pier Street meeting point (-31.955632, 115.862117), where all tours depart from. We got into a much smaller van, secured some decent seats, and quickly started touring the CBD.

After a (rushy) city tour, we quickly reached Kings Park (a couple kms away from Perth CBD), where we’ve been left for some 45 mins. Kings park overlooks the Perth CBD and the Swan River, showcasing some interesting samples of Australian flora.

Kings Park in Perth

Hence this has been our first chance for a couple of good shots during our honeymoon. Too bad it didn’t last long. By the time we walked through the Tree Top Walk and reached the viewpoint, it was already time to leave.

View of Perth CBD from Kings Park in the Morning

To bad the sun was moreover just in front of us, so that all pictures were also taken directly against the sun.

Tree Top Walk in Kings Park

After our first (and only stop), we quickly drove to Fremantle, passing by Cottesloe beach, disappointingly, without a stop there.

Fremantle Center

As we got to Fremantle, we were given some hints on how to continue our visit on our own by our driver, who’s also been kind enough to find two buyers for our Swan river cruise tickets. In fact, we had originally planned to immediately get back to Perth by boat. Instead, we decided to do a quick detour to Rottnest. We jumped on the Rottnest Express, which was leaving from the B-Shed. It’s been quite tough for us to locate it, since google maps put us completely off this time. Basically, we stepped into it by chance. That’s exactly where we took following picture (you can locate it on the map below, if you’re also struggling to find your way to the Rottnest Express departing point).

Rottnest Express, Ferry To Rotto

We got to the island at about 12PM, after about an hour of transfer. We picked up our bikes and started to wander around.

Cycling in Rottnest Island

Bicycle is basically the only transportation mean you’re allowed to have on the island, besides the Bayseeker, a bus which frequently runs in circle around the island. The only black, black fly you can encounter in the chardonnay of healthy fresh air you can breathe while wandering around the island. When planning our visit we decided to stick with the bikes, only to find out that Rotto (as Rottnest Island is also called) has just enough hills to make a half day’s ride a very good exercise. And of course, exercising in such a beautiful place is much more entertaining compared to working out or just jogging around home.

Rottnest Island Coastline

In the time we had, we managed to tour half part of the island. On our way back, when we were almost hopeless, we even managed to step into a bounch of quokkas.

Quokka in Rottnest Island

They were one of our main reasons for visiting the islands, so missin accomplished! With time running out, we then hurried to the boat, stopping for a few extra pictures. As soon as we entered the Rottnest Express rain started to pour and a wonderful rainbow formed over the water.

Rainbow

We then boarded and went back to Perth CBD. We got there early in the evening, just in time to get back to the hotel room, get the tripod and come out again for a couple of nightly shots from the other side of the Swan river (Mends St. Jetty).

Perth CBD at Night

That’s been before eventually getting some food in the Northbridge area; and then finally going to bed. First lesson learned: in australia you have to eat before 20:00 (08:00PM) or you risk of waving goodbye to your evening meal. Seriously. It’s not like in Italy, where it’s perfectly normal to eat at 20:30. It seemed to us like if the clock there was just two hours ahead from time it displayed. Weird sensation on our first day. Before eventually getting used to that.

So, for summarizing things, our first day’s been a good one. Biking around for a few hours in Rottnest with all the jetlag and lack of sleep has been tough at times. But been more than worth. Great sceneries and a chance to see the quokkas. On the other hand, I admit, I wasn’t particularily impressed by the morning tour, which only lasted a couple of hours . This is despite the driver who’s been kind and cool.

If you go to Perth, I suggest that you walk around Perth CBD by yourself (it’s not big, so that it can easily be seen in a couple of hours) and then you reach places such as Kings Garden, Fremantle and Cottesloe on your own. Of course, if time’s a factor such as in our case, that might be the only option allowing you to do everything. So, better than nothing, I’d say.