Tuesday November 3, 1992 - Rome, Italy
Woke up early and walked to the United Nations FAO building where I was able to take the bus to the FAO Forestry building which certainly beat walking! I spent most of the morning talking with George and Max who were the GIS technicians and database managers. Both George and Max were Italians native to Rome and spoke good English. George gave me a brief overview of SPANS which was the GIS system they were using and FORIS which was their dBase IV database. Later, Max gave me an additional demonstration of SPANS. Both Max and George were heavy smokers which appeared to be common among Italians. It was becoming apparent that many Italians were attracted to anything that was either outlawed, dangerous, or unhealthy. For example, it was against the law to drive without seat belts or ride motorcycles without a helmet, but I had yet to see anyone wearing either and to add to the danger, many motorcyclists and cars would drive at night without headlights. This might not have been so bad if Italians were cautious drivers, but few seemed to show much respect for rules of the road 😱. The rest of the day I spent setting up my workspace and trying to get organized.
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