Moving day. When we first arrived in Italy we were suppose to be in a hotel at Pragelato Plan. The hotel wasn’t ready so we moved up the street in to Sestriere. We had received word that our hotel was ready and we could move in today. As we didn’t unpack anything, we were finally looking forward to moving in to our new digs for the rest of the Olympics. More on that later.
The day started out very hectic with cable crews, control room installers, and edit installers. Sorting all of this out and making sure that everyone had their needs and work was getting done and we were seeing progress. The morning went by quickly and time for us to check out. I went back and got Rosemary and our luggage. Problem #1, checking out. NBC had not told the hotel Rosemary was staying with me. Italian laws are very strict on room sharing. You have to pay extra for a guest in your room. And they were trying to figure out the bill and include Rosemary’s charges. Almost an hour goes by while we try to sort this out. NBC logistics people do come down and help and we are finally on our way. As check in is not until 2:00p, Rosemary sits at the venue and meets our crew. Meanwhile Problem #2 arises. We find out that the cable paths that we need to cable our cameras are not approved. For most sporting events, TV can put their cables any darn place they want. In Olympics, that is not quite true. All cables have got to be run in approved paths by the Organizing Committee. As these are crucial paths, we all thought they had been approved. They hadn’t. So I spent half the afternoon dealing with getting our cables in place. Or sort of until we did get final approval.
Problem #3. Hotel is not ready. And we are being told that it is dangerous to stay there. So Willetta asked that I go for myself up to look at the situation. I was not going thru the hassle I went thru at the hotel again this morning if I had to go back there. So with Rosemary in tow, to make sure I didn’t agree to something stupid (I was ready to sleep in the car if necessary), we went to look at the situation at the hotel. The paths were clogged with excavators and workmen. We were smothered with goodwill as we met with the management. We went to look at our room and it is amazing. Two story with two bedrooms (Brian will have the other). Big living and dining area and nice kitchen. All new and very nice. I am staying! Rosemary agrees and we tell the management we will go back and recommend the others to stay. I leave Rosemary in charge to move our luggage because the parking lot is not ready and we will leave the car at the venue compound (did I say the resort is right next door to the venue….COOL). I go back for more small issues and get ready for the conference call. Rosemary shows up to say they are not ready to move the luggage so she came to get Willetta and the runners to check out their rooms. About an hour later, they show up discouraged. The State Police, all 350 of them, who have been hired to do security at the Olympics show up to check in. Now the hotel staff have no time to move our luggage. I am on the con-call but tell them they should just pack their back packs and haul what they easily can carry to the room for the night….screw going back to the first hotel. They cheer up and do that. I get off the con-call and we all walk to our new digs. A very nice dinner and now to enjoy our new home for the next 4 weeks. (By the way, this is the first day the hotel and it’s restaurant are open, and they take in 359 people! It was quite chaotic at the buffet supper)
View of office
View of compound and hill
David and Willetta
David talking on computer
posted by DaveandBrian @ 2:37 AM
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