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A perspective from the backstage - by Marco Petroni

It is appropriate for you all to know that if my face at the Front Desk has got the majority of the applauses, this is only because the Back Stage people have taken up ALL the stress and sorted out the numerous unforeseen problems which occurred during the Valdera Event. Giulio, Ermanno and Barbara ran the backstage, and perhaps now you'll understand why they were not present on all the trips, swimmings, lunches and some of the dinners.

May I explain the most pertinent of happenings? (at random)

"I will fire you all NOW", was Marco's typical frequent mobile phone call to Barbara (the most serene and solar person I have ever met) when the bus(es) was over 3 minutes late...imagine the call when we had some 40 minutes delay because the darned machine was used for a previous service to bring local kids to school! The condemned driver was immediately told to "Follow a more Schumaker'ish style and try and arrive ON TIME in Volterra".

Gen. Dario Orrù was calling Marco every 5 minutes "Are you on schedule?". "Yes my General, we'll be sharp at 09:30 at the bus stop," (one of my biggest lies ever!), "So start warming-up the flagband". Eventually both buses arrived on time (Ermanno was always adding 50% safety on all timings).

During dinner at Pontedera (20 expected. 50 present...) some asked to visit the Piaggio motorbike production line so the Technical Director had to be phoned early morning for agreement. His secretary called him up in a meeting in London and the visit was organised. Mrs Vania asked Marco, "How many? You know, to sort out the groups". "Just about 20" was the reply. Another big one... Mrs. V. had her revenge though, I had to list ALL names of present for the Piaggio security !! (sorry if I have invented some of your names not having the relevant list in my pocket).

The next morning only Jôrg (D-EDDO) was interested in the Natural History museum of Capannoli, no big buses were available, so we have crammed mini-things like sardines for transport (I remember I was sitting in the dog area trying to avoid that the backdoor was slamming and attract police who would certainly have had big eyes for that particular load factor!) Giulio was made aware and ready for prompt intervention!

The trains are on strike, all guests are strolling around and I didn't know where they all where. Barbara! "I will FIRE you all (again?). I WANT a BIG bus in front of the Piaggio Museum at 13:30, call Ni and ask him to relay message to the people who are in Pontedera". Some ladies had to interrupt a nice lunch at some local trattoria to get on the bus.... We hoped they understood the reasons!

In the meantime, calls from all parts of Europe were queuing up on my cellphone to inform me "Hi, we are in xyz, and will take off in 30 minutes estimating Valdera at ……." .The ETA message was immediately relayed the backstage to Col. Moia for proper handling by his radar guys both in Pisa and Padova (also military). Now, some of you understand how come that you were allowed to maintain altitude over the, otherwise compulsory 1500ft AGL in the Po valley....! You can thank Col. Moia for that.

On Saturday afternoon we went to the Spa of Casciana Terme. Danny DeBrandt (N1KH) had no swimming trunks! The nice lady at the reception fumbled in a heap of leftovers, got some horrendous gear and handed it over to me saying "Please, for hygienic reasons, tell the customer to wear his personal stuff underneath..." Unfortunately, that particular message never reached Danny!

Some hours before the Saturday evening official dinner, our caterer had a dispute with another key person of the organization about how the raw materials had to be bought and, was upset because he; was not involved; wanted to leave the whole party and return immediately to China where he works normally! Giulio, Ermanno and Barbara were eventually chasing him along the airfield and succeeded in stopping him with convincing arguments (the military or the prettiness?).

The Volterra trip was in the hands of Gen. Orrù, he called numerous meetings to sort out ALL details, be-on-time was the most important tune. "But we have to leave some time for strolling/shopping do we not Mr. General?" This was of course a deviation from orderly sequences but was eventually accepted with as a consequence that cellphones were ringing from lost souls. Ah! The joys of civilian life!