Vespatour 2006 Part 12: Arezzo
I was in Cortona in the evening of august 16, the eighth stop of the Vespatour, when a guy I met at the hostel recommended me to go to Arezzo, a town I didn’t plan to visit.
When he told me they filmed my favorite movie there, Life is beautiful by Benigni, and that there were panels marking the places where the scenes were filmed, I had no more hesitations and I spent the following day in that magic town.
The first picture shows Piazza Grande. May be someone will recognize the window of the hilarious scene “Maria, throw down the keys!”. 🙂
The second one is where Guido (Benigni) hit Dora (Braschi) while he was going by bicycle and then he greeted her saying “Buongiorno Principessa!“, while the third one is the park near the Cathedral where I rested a few minutes to write a postcard, the second one I sent during the journey, beginning with those words since it was for a girl. 😉
All the 70 pictures of the day I spent in Arezzo are in the twelfth gallery of the journey.
PS: On that postcard I marked the wrong window in Piazza Grande. I noticed that when I was back home and watched Benigni’s movie again…
i-muse Usability Tests on Tafter
It’s a satisfaction watching the result of our work in the hands of people while they visit the Educational Silk museum of Como with i-muse, seeing them at ease and at the end satisfied while they recall the things which impressed them the most! 🙂
Most of them actually didn’t expect such a high quality of the guide in all its components: workings, graphics and contents.
Usability tests are going on, they’re allowing us to refine the software and recently I had the chance to explain how they are performed in an article published on the italian online magazine Tafter.
Usability is common sense, as Donald A. Norman says, and from the tests we made so far it seems result we wished to obtain is getting near: when people, at the end of their visit, comment only the contents it means the rest is ok, the i-muse formula works! 😉
Vespatour 2006 Part 11: from Siena to Cortona
In the late afternoon of august 3 of the last year, I began the Vespatour, a journey that gave me a lot of surprises I’m now describing here on the blog, a bit at a time.
With this post I’m about at the half. 😉
The Siena’s Palio always fascinated me: a competition so ancient and beloved by the people living there I thought it had something special I couldn’t grasp by solely watching it on TV.
So last year I coordinated the stops of the journey to be able to attend it.
In the afternoon of august 16, after visiting San Galgano’s Abbey, I arrived in Siena just before the start.
The atmosphere was incredible: the Contradaioli (citizens living in specific areas of the town) thrilled for their jockey and his horse, while tourists assisted to the big show.
The Contrada della Selva won the race, the one where I parked the Vespa, so I immediately left Siena heading towards Cortona just as the celebrations began.
Here are the 30 photos of the eleventh gallery of the journey. 🙂
George, would you like to try i-muse?
Something was missing in the article about i-muse published on last saturday by the daily newspaper La Provincia: all the names of the team members thanks to whom we got up to this point!
So I wrote a letter for the Letters to the Director feature, thanking the team and pointing out that we’ll continue the invitation-only usability tests at the Educational Silk Museum in Como during the whole august, so even the people who now are busy at work will be able to find the time to come and try the videoguide and discover the wonders of a museum so little known by the people living in Como.
In the letter I also invited the famous american actor George Clooney, who’s spending the holidays in his Villa Oleandra in Laglio, to come and try i-muse and visit the museum.
Who knows, maybe you’ll find him in the gallery of photos we’re shooting during the tests! 😉
i-muse lives! on La Provincia
A full page article, printed in colors, clearly conveys the enthusiasm of the journalist Chiara Sirna who previewed the videoguide at the Educational Silk Museum in Como.
After the article of the last january, the daily newspaper La Provincia didn’t waste any time and let its readers know we got to the point, i-muse lives, and we started the invitation-only usability testing phase that will last until the end of august.
We also set up a gallery of photos shot during the tests showing the invited people as they walk inside the museum with i-muse.
This will also be a good opportunity for many people living in Como to discover a museum preserving a piece of the glorious history of the town related to silk processing if they didn’t have the chance to visit it yet. 🙂
For the moment i-muse is available only for the invitation-only usability tests. I point that out since the article isn’t too clear about it.
Come to try i-muse and we hope you’ll get impressed just like Chiara, who at the end of the visit asked us surprised: “How did you manage to put the videos on the PDA?” 😀
Au revoir Valérie
Valérie, our french stagier, went back to France for her deserved holidays after she managed to get appreciations from anyone who had the chance to meet her due to her contribution to the i-muse project and not only due to her charm and pleasant french accent! 🙂
An extraordinary girl, brilliant and results-producing, qualities they recommend to search for in the people to work with and that rarely you can find in the same person.
It was a privilege working with her during these three months, not only because she has a so vital attitude that looks the opposite of his italian surname ;), but also because you could talk about anything with her: from business planning to Rfid technology, to french cuisine, or even about John Gray’s books. 😉
Also thanks to her the number of left-handers in the i-muse team became equal: 3 vs 3.
Her thesis about the use of technology for the valorization of cultural goods, that she’ll discuss in september in Italy, almost looks like a celebration for i-muse, in a natural way however, since the studies and the market trends are reporting that the odds for our product are good in this specific sector.
A big thank you for what you did: Au revoir Valérie!
Come to Try i-muse!
This is the graphics made by Luca to invite people to try i-muse at the Educational Silk Museum in Como. 🙂
Now it’s your turn to judge our work, a hard work, complex, which involved many people and now it’s condensed in 50 minutes of PDA guided visit to one of the most fascinating museums in Como.
At the end of the visit we’ll ask you to fill a feedback questionnaire. This and the careful observation of your behavior while you’ll be using i-muse will help us understanding if and how making modifications to improve the guide.
We’re organizing the tests by appointment and they’ll be free of charge of course, so if you’d like to book for the test you can write to info@i-muse.info.
The virtual guide is waiting to tell you with an appealing voice “Welcome to the i-muse system“… 😉
Vespa World Days 2007 and 2nd National Vespa Meeting Town of Como
1050 kilometers in three days riding my Vespa: it’s the result of the journey made together with 11 Vespa riders of the Vespaclub Como to join the Vespa World Days 2007, the international gathering organized this year in San Marino.
More than 3000 Vespa riders, a wonderful weather, a nice company and specials such as Nicola L’impennatore and the Arrotino from the Vespaclub Biella made the three days a memorable experience.
It was as funny as the 2nd National Vespa Meeting Town of Como on june 24, a day in which taking pics was my duty for the club. Gathering in Como, aperitif in Menaggio and then in Grandola e Uniti for the lunch: 300 Vespa fans enjoyed the sight of the lake and the organization of the event, including the Vespazza Award, “la Vespa più Bonazza”, given to the nicest girl on a Vespa. 😀
If you’re in a hurry these are the best 3 of the two events.
LaboratorioComo at Villa Grumello
A wonderfully restored villa, facing the enchanted sight of the lake of Como, high level speakers and a perfect organization by the Como Chamber of Commerce’s staff.
These were the ingredients of the five evenings of LaboratorioComo, the initiative wanted by Paolo de Santis, Como Chamber of Commerce’s President, aimed to educate and stimulate new entrepreneurs through the creation of an elite education school in the area named Kilometer of knowledge, going from Villa Olmo to Villa Erba passing by Villa Grumello, where the event took place.
The level of the speakers was really excellent, it was a pleasure listening to experienced people talking about arguments I’m involved into: becoming an entrepreneur, using technology to valorize cultural heritage, keeping the bound with our territory, working in a pleasant environment and most of all being creative in order to be able to turn problems into opportunities and make products with a social function.
In particular I was impressed by the words of engineer Giuseppe Natta, founder of Ecodeco Spa and maker of the La Cassinazza, by the speech of Davide Rampello, President of La Triennale and by director Paolo Lipari with his “Wait a moment… what if?”, synthesizing the moment in which a team’s creativity unleashes the power to break old schemas.
After these five evenings I felt like there’s a favorable wind blowing into our direction about what we’re doing with i-muse! 🙂
Vespatour 2006 Part 10: from Monteriggioni to Montieri
My solo-journey of the last summer, the Vespatour, continued from Florence towards southern Tuscany.
I slept one night at the Ostello del Chianti in Tavarnelle Val di Pesa and I enjoyed it thanks to the people I met there: Silvia, the hostel’s manager, and Alessio, a biker from Torino.
Valentina, a girl I met in Florence, recommended me to visit the mysterious Monteriggioni stronghold and to search for the even more mysterious cats without tail living there.
So I did it, and in the evening of august 15 I also visited San Gimignano, the town with 100 towers.
The following day was no less intensive. Following a recommendation from Elisa, a friend from Como, I visited San Galgano’s Abbey and I saw the mythic sword inside the rock! 8)
Then I reached La Meridiana in Montieri in the Maremma area to bring Elisa’s greetings to Mrs. Mirella, the manager of the agritourismo.
In Palazzetto, along the road to Siena to attend the Palio, I met by chance Alberto, Angelo e Claudio, three Vespa-riders from Mantua and we lunched together.
Here are the 47 photos of the “authentically Tuscan” tenth gallery of the Vespatour! 🙂