[Island Chris]

The work is going well; I have been working really hard, most of 7 days/week, maybe 12 hours/day. This would kill me sooner or later if I kept it up, which I will not. There is lots of opportunity for deep thought. I am the only one in my hotel: in 11 days I have not seen a single other person in the hotel, although someone comes in and makes the bed (I have not seen him/her). I don't speak Italian, and there are virtually no non-Italian people. Trieste, 9 km away, is a really nice small city with lots of old things and museums and is on the Adriatic Sea. But even there the people on a weekend tend to be 95% Italian: no Germans, Americans, Asians. The cruise ship was just leaving, so earlier there must have been 2000 tourists who may have been from other countries. Meanwhile, Venice, west down the coast, is a zoo (presumably; it was a few years ago the one time I went).

So, I have lots of time by myself to just think. The hotel has no internet, I have no smart phone or service, and the hotel has no TV either. I have been working with Italian Colleagues, and we have done some "brainstorming", which is the point of such trips.

Chris