When in Rome ……

Yesterday (03/03/08) was my first official day in Rome. I have never been to Italy before so it was all very new and exiting to me.

The morning started off with me having some breakfast and a bit of an impromptu meeting with Robin Landis and Francesca Duffy from WFP (World Food Program). Both Robin and Francesca went into some detail about the partnership between WFP and North Star Foundation.

The partnership is quite simple really. WFP move tons of food and aid around the world. The main means of transporting this relief aid is by truck. HIV/AIDS like any other epidemic is spread by the movement of people from one area to another. What easer way of spreading a disease than by sex workers and truck drivers that utilize the services of these sex workers? This means that the backbone of the WFP is under attack from HIV/AIDS. WFP and TNT are aware of the impact that this can have in there own organisation and felt that more needed to be done to ensure the longevity of there own drivers but that of others in the same field. This has in turn lead up to the forming of North Star Foundation. More and more companies are seeing the benefit in what WFP and North Star Foundation are doing and are coming on board to help aid and fun this project. More info on this can be found on the North Star Foundation’s official website (http://www.northstarfoundation.org)

After the meeting I felt I had to see a bit of Rome. So when in Rome….

I did not venture to far in Rome as after all I am here on business and not on a sight seeing trip so I only really went to the Colosseum and some of the other ruins around it. One of the things that did strike me about Rome is the carefree attitude of people here. Very laid back I found. At the train station there was a lady that had climbed off the platform to carry her bag and children across to the other platform. (There was a subway she should have and could have used) but no one seem to get upset about it or even offered to help. Lucky for her the hi-speed train came though the station about 5 mins after she had got every thing across. But no one seemed to care.

Rome its self is a bit dirty, again no one seems to care. Graffiti! Now I have seen graffiti in the UK but not on this scale. It’s every were! But the monuments are left untouched. I guess they do have some respect. The people are very friendly and will talk to you no matter what, even if you can quite plainly show them that you don’t understand. My taxi driver rambled on for ages despite me telling him I did not understand what he was on about. On the subject of taxi’s, well driving, I can clearly see why some of the best race car/ motor bike racers in the world are Italian. Any one that can drive like these people and get away with it must be world classed! I am yet to see a smash. Every road seems to be a race track. Just glad I don’t have a nervous disposition.

The Colosseum was amazing. I did not go into it but just walked around it and up the road a bit to the other ruins. As I did not do history or geography at school I am bit ignorant to what is what. Also as I did not get a guide book I kind of felt I was missing out on a lot. As a result I think I will come back with someone a bit more knowledgeable on the subject of Rome. I have taken some photos of where I went to as well as some video. The photos can be found here. The videos will take a bit longer to upload to YouTube as I have restricted internet access at the moment.

So far I have enjoyed the start to my assignment with North Star Foundation. But there is still lots to learn and a fair bit of hard work ahead of me.