This post is also available in:
Italiano (Italian)
The story of the work trip to England would have been enough by itself to be remembered, but it happened to reinforce it by being a guest on TV. Even, on RAI, in prime time and live.
Approach to the urinal
I have always been a big fan of urinals in public restrooms, which have two great merits and no flaws. They are more hygienic, allowing you not to have contact with handles or anything else touched by who knows who and how. Also, they are usually with fewer lines so they are great if, as is often the case with me, you have urgency.
I was at the Fiumicino airport and was precisely in the process of leaving the best of me in liquid form when I began to feel myself being observed. I know of curious people stretching their necks to compare measurements. But this gentleman was far enough away and was looking me in the face. I couldn’t help but return the gaze questioningly, as he was really insisting.
Sorry, it’s just that I recognized you. I saw her as a guest on TV last night. What an incredible story she told!
TV guest, I win the debate
On my return from England I first approached a lawyer who explained that I was undoubtedly the victim of a scam. But it would not be convenient for me to move through legal channels. The financial damage was not that great and I would waste time gaining mostly anger. I wrote a letter and sent it to the newspapers. Repubblica, L’Unità and Il Messaggero published it for me. After a few days, I received a call from someone who at that time was a simple journalist from the editorial staff of Mi manda Rai 3. She was the then famous anchorwoman Serena Bortone.
That was a prime-time program exposing the various scams that Italians were suffering; for the first episode of the season they chose my story as the main theme. Bortone turned out to be very thorough and got a good explanation of everything, going to look for confirmations and even managed to track down the chick from my agency, which I failed to do because she no longer answered the phone and the office where I had gone to talk turned out to be empty and without even the label in the doorbell anymore. They searched in vain for a confrontation with English companies, while they managed to find the other Italian agency to which my other compatriots who experienced the same vicissitude as me had turned.
We were all invited to the broadcast where we were interviewed by none other than the future president of the Lazio Region (later involved in famous scandals) Piero Marrazzo. At the last minute the one from my agency could not be found for the telephone connection, while the one from the agency in Rome made a bad impression by grasping at straws so much so that to defend himself at one point he said that my friend from Perugia and I were only there to get the television limelight.
Not only hosted on TV, but played by a famous actor
The funniest thing was undoubtedly that in that edition the program included the famous comedian Enrico Beruschi would play the main character of the main episode, in that case me, in a sketch.
So many people saw me and gave me feedback like the guy in the bathroom at the airport. Or like a friend of mine who was in the pizza parlor with his girlfriend when he asked that they tune the TV to Rai 3 and once home, he kept it on while making love. Unfortunately, the video of me being a guest on TV has deteriorated and is no longer visible.
Reflections on business travel
My experience, makes me have a critical stance toward those who as young people set off on work trips with the presumption that it is the only way to really travel.
Of course in the diatribe between going on vacation and traveling, if you live in the places the experiences are truer.
- But is it better to travel for a few years between jobs and then not be able to afford it?
- Not being able to go to more expensive places?
- Or invest in yourself and have a profession so you can have lifelong travel experiences and/or any desirable destination?
All over the world if you are a low-profile worker you are exploited. The issue is even more complicated when you are in a foreign country where to the possible language difficulty must be added all the bureaucratic wrangling. But the main question is whether you really can travel all your life doing precarious work.
There comes a time when you also have other needs. One may have a family. One may have personal or loved ones’ health problems. Or one simply has a need for something more financially substantial or to stop somewhere.
At that point, all jobs are good and everyone can travel on vacation. But if I have built a more solid professionalism, I can afford to travel more and better.
What’s different is for those who don’t need to work or for certain IT tasks or where you can work remotely, but as a percentage how many of them are there?
Links
Home travel My business trip gutting chickens in England
Previous stop Traveling working, life experience
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.