Conversations

Early morning coffee with views of people in typical poses before an extended conference day. All very successful.

I popped back to the hotel between the end of the conference and the collective dinner, to discover that the repair on our toilet seat that had been requested had been carried out, but only to the extent of returning the toilet seat to the halfbroken state that it was in when we arrived. Consequently it broke again immediately. This prompted an absolute meltdown on my part. I haven't been doing my hotel blips on this trip, but I do have all the relevant pictures and I will put them online (and put reviews on all the key consumer sites) as soon as I get a chance. The hotel was an absolute shower. The man on the desk insisted there was no other room where we could go, although eventually and begrudgingly he did arrange to get the toilet seat fixed that evening. I pointed out this was supposed to be a 4* hotel. No sign of that at all as far as I was concerned.

We were supposed to be staying a third night, but we announced we were leaving, and fixed something else up in the countryside.

In general, I have to say I didn't really like Macerata. Not a patch on Ascoli Piceno. It was quite dirty and very noisy overnight, it being a student city, etc. etc.

It isn't on my return list.