Giro D’Italia — Stage 14

Today we are at a beautiful hotel. It is only our team and Milram. Plenty of parking for both of us. There is a wedding happening tonight and the party is getting loud. But at least the wedding party is in a room far from the living area/rooms. So, they can rip it up as loud as they want and we don’t care.

The hotel owner (I think he is the owner) is a really nice guy. Very talkative and is also very helpful. At dinner, he seemed to go out of his way to make us happy. He kind of reminded me of Mr. Burns from the Simpsons cartoon show. Older gentleman. Gray hair and balding. Slightly hunch back. And full of vigor. Old but not slow. He was a quick wit.

He was interested in the countries where we came from. He asked many of us and got “Belgium” — “New Zealand” – “England” and “Ukraine” as well as others. He asked me where I was from. I said I was American of Chinese descent. And that triggered something. He started off with “I have nothing against you, but the Chinese”………….. They copy everything he says. Marmi for example. They copy it, manufacture it and import it into Italy for HALF price. It’s killing the Marmi business he says. The Chinese are ruining the Italian Marmi market with their cheep Marmi. First off I had no clue what Marmi is. Now I do. It’s basically Marble. And secondly I think this guy is somehow conected/into the Marmi business world. He had NO OTHER example of Chinese intervention and copying of other products. He just went off on the Chinese Marmi business for 20 minutes. Go figure.