My entrée arrives. Each pasta is a bite sized pouch stuffed with gorgonzola, walnut and pear covered in cream sauce. The yellow Fiochetti and white lava combine to form a warm glow. On the side of my plate are thin slices of a young parmesan reggiano. The dish is surprisingly not that heavy. I pair it with a demi-bouteille of red Brunello wine. It’s acidity cuts through the lush Delice. A delicious truce is struck in the Alsace Lorraine of my mouth.
The dessert menu arrives with a basket of oranges and large, glass jars of candy. Gummy bears stare at me through clear prison walls. The waiter collects the tableware and delivers the check.
A Day At the Exhibition
The next morning the Tutto Exhibition has a bus going from my hotel to the show. Once again, the sky is dark and stormy, borderline rainy.
Passengers are dropped off in front of a covered walkway. Under it is a long, narrow carpet like an Italian yellow brick road. The Fierra Milano exhibition center is modern in design. One part of the roof juts up, a leaning volcano of white graph paper. To either side of us are shallow fields of water. Artistic sculptures rise from them. Somewhere in Europe, an opera is missing its’ scenery.
The salon is broken down into pavilions with themes (“Dairy” or “Meat”). My meetings go quickly. I talk to a few new cheese companies, and a current supplier of Napolitan pasta. This producer deliberately screwed us over to make a few euros. So having broken our exclusivity agreement, we stopped all promotions. Competitors dumped the brand at a lower price just to make a quick dollar. With multiple distributors, no one had any interest to market the brand. Everyone was just poaching sales for a quick bump.
I head outside where there is an outdoor ramp providing a second floor walkway between the Tutto pavilions. This conveniently provides a covered path for the ground floor. As I stroll between buildings, rain falls around me. More decorative pools are sprinkled about. I pass a “Mama Burger” stand whose logo would cause a race riot back home. Everyone here is short except for the Eastern European models that stumble by on high heels. They work as presenters and translators. Fluency in English does not seem to be a primary requirement.
I wrap up the rest of my meetings. The financial firm Deloitte asked me to give a lecture tonight. Their Italian business customers have all been invited, and I still haven’t memorized the speech. Question and answer (Q&A) formats are so much easier. You can just phone it in with little to no effort.
As I exit Tutto and start to walk across the street, a helicopter sits on the front lawn. Rumors swirl through the crowd. Berlusconi and Obama’s names are mentioned. I peer through the black security fence and watch the white chopper tilt backward and take off, neatly avoiding all the traffic. Must be nice to be a baller
Crossing the street, I walk into the lobby of the NH hotel. It has two towers, each about 20 stories tall. They look like giant chunks of obsidian marble in the process of falling. Square windows of different shapes and sizes have been carved into it.For tonight’s speech Deloitte has myself, 2 Italian consultants, 2 people from Rutger’s University in N.J. and some guy who is going to talk about making tortillas?!?
I go first, though being Italy a good portion of the 70 attendees won’t arrive until later. Since I didn’t memorize my talk, I read from a pre-printed sheet. Headphones have been provided to the audience, and everything is simultaneously translated into Italian.
Introducing myself, I try to say something humorous (which bombs), and then address the topic of my speech. Here is an excerpt: