We will be going to Cararra on Thursday and there will be no class on Monday, so people are making travel plans to take advantage of the extra day. I hear there are some bus tours that leave Florence on Thursday at 7:30, and I wanted to let you know that we will be leaving the trade show in Cararra at 3:30 (or 15:30 if you prefer), so we should be back in Florence between 5:30 and 6:00 (17:30-18:00). So you will have plenty of time to catch your bus to Capri or Interlaken or wherever.

I will also make Monday June 16 and optional class meeting. For those that would like, I will be available to meet and talk about your journals and company visit contributions. But if you’d prefer to have one extra day for travel that weekend, you do not have to attend class that day.

We will meet at Palazzo Rucellai on Wednesday June 18 for class. Let me know if you have questions.

While we will spend most of the class “on the road” visiting companies, we do have a classroom at Palazzo Rucellai. It is most likely a bedroom in the old palace, but not the master bedroom (there are better, bigger rooms). To get there, students have to go along a twisty passage way because of the way that the palace was built originally, but also because the palace has been subdivided among the heirs through the years into sets of rooms that are not exactly contiguous.

btw, the fresco pictures on the walls are actually flat walls. The pillars and everything are done with painting the shadows to make it look three dimensional.

There seems to be a lot of information at the English Yellow Pages, including a section on accommodations with reviews. Let me know if you use it and if it works out. Safe travels this weekend (especially to football in Rome).

The strategy lecture note is posted on the website on the Syllabus page. This is another link to it. There is also a one page Strategy Checklist available for you to review before the visits.

Have a great weekend and meet me at the Santa Maria Novella train station no later than 8:30 on Monday morning for the trip to Santa Tea. You can come a little early and get a coffee at the train station, or even something from the McDonalds inside the train station.

On Wednesday we will stop for lunch in Viareggio along the beach after visiting the artisans in Pietrasanta (we will see marble, bronze and mosaics). The bus will leave to get us back to Florence around 3pm, but you will be able to stay out at the beach longer (if the weather is good) and ride the train back to Florence in the evening.

I am working to determine the time we will return on Thursday, but right now I am not sure. We should know more on Monday. Let me know if you’ve arranged travel for Thursday evening and we can make sure that your schedule is feasible with our trip to the marble quarry and trade show.

Here’s the article if you’d like to read it.

I would like for you to check one thing for me today: Can people in my class see if they can access the bios/pictures/phone numbers for the family business class student (BADM 2893)? And can the family business students see if they can see the same info for the students in OPIM 4893?

Send me a note or post a comment here. Thanks.

Another way to contact me is to go to one of the pages you can access and leave a comment. I have the website set up to alert me when changes or comments are made, and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

I noticed some people have already been able to get to their journal pages and make changes. Some others have gone to their page and clicked on the “Add Comment” to leave a comment. That is fine, but I would also like you to click on the “edit page” link (at the top under page tools) and actually add something on the journal page itself, just to get practice doing that.

And thanks to the few of you that fixed your phone numbers on the “Particiapnt” pages. I have added others that were handwritten in class. Let me know as soon as you have a phone number, just in case we need to get in contact with each other.

Read Benihana and National Cranberry for our discussion on Wednesday. Let me know if you have other questions or concerns. You also have the option of leaving a comment here (in addition to comments on the wiki or email to me).

The Paris-Pisa flight is in and the students are on the bus to Florence, but stuck in rush hour traffic. I will head over to the train station to meet them, probably between 7:30 and 8:00. I hope it is not too much later.

They are in Florence, and here is a group picture of the students, with Santa Maria Novella in the background:

The Rome-Florence flight arrived on time and the students looked tired but fine. The Paris-Pisa flight arrives this afternoon, and I will meet the bus when they arrive in Florence to say hi. Orientation starts on Saturday morning at 8:25, and will be held in a nice place called Fiesole, on the hills overlooking Florence. Sunday, if it doesn’t rain, there will be a picnic in one of the parks in Florence (Cascine). Not far from Palazzo Rucellai.

Here are some random pictures from the airport:

The material you received from Palazzo Rucellai should have included the phone numbers for the school there, in case someone needs to contact you while you’re in Italy. After the first day, you will also have an Italian cell phone number that they can call with the appropriate international calling prefixes. As a final back up, people can feel free to contact me on my Italian cell phone. The local number there is 346-626-3146. From the US, the number would be