Life & Research Notes

This week Andy Volk and I put the finishing touches on the first version of isitsafetovisit.com, a simple tool that lets people check safety ratings and advisories for any country in the world.

From our about page: “Every night our trusty scripts head out and find data about the safety rating of each country from the U.S. Department of State, Canadian Foreign Affairs Department, Australia Smart Traveler, and New Zealand Safe Travel. We then compare the ratings and average them together to give our best estimate as to the current safety rating for that country. We’re also tracking the data over time to enable some exciting new features in the future.”

Always dreamed of the beaches in Thailand? Thinking about moving down to Mexico? Or maybe you prefer the safety of Ireland? A big part of what’s interesting about this service is seeing how the various advisories offer alerts and warnings differently. Andy and I are both passionate travelers. We don’t want these advisories to necessarily prevent people from traveling; we’re just trying to make the government recommendations more available and understandable.

Anyway, check out some random countries, and if you have any feedback, leave a comment here or in our forum on GetSatisfaction. Thanks!

This afternoon I was exploring the Palatine, a beautiful area of ruins in the middle of Rome near the Colosseum. I walked up a hill among old decaying brick and stone formations, and came upon a sizeable recessed grassy area that I think used to be a foundation for some larger building (my guidebook hints that it may have been the Casa dei Grifi).

A few couples and families were lounging around, reading and drinking wine, and it looked inviting. I lay down with my head on my pack, and watched the birds soar over and the clouds float by. I noticed the grass had some fennel mixed in with it, and it smelled wonderful. Next thing I knew I had been asleep for an hour. I guess I needed it.

Yesterday I was out on the Cinque Terra coast with Dave, Hayes, and a couple other nice CHI folks. It was a combination of nerding and hiking, just what I needed to spin me out of somewhat dour conference mode and into intrepid tourism! It rained off and on all day, and the sun never came out, but with crab linguine, muddy hiking, plentiful wine, precarious cliffs, and thick mists, I really can’t think of any way it could have been better. Plus the rain deterred the more pedestrian tourists.

Back in Florence, after a long day hiking and training around, it only took a couple large bottles of Moretti to knock us out, and we slept deeply and late into the morning. Then Dave and I climbed the Duomo, which was spectacular, especially the celing frescos depicting heaven and hell. Heaven is evidently boring, while hell involves having flaming sticks rammed up your ass. Catholicism is lovely.

A couple panini and desserts later, then I was packing up my stuff, saying goodby to Dave (who heads back to MIT tomorrow), then heading to the train station. I hopped a Eurostar to Rome, and it was less than two hours, almost too fast since I didn’t have enough time to read up on the city before I got here.

I seem to be staying in a mediocre guesthouse near the train station, in the area the guidebook authors think is sketchy. But it is just a normal traveller neighborhood, with cheap internet and laundry (which I am using right now), and it is probably for only one night anyway, as I am thinking of heading down to Naples or Sorrento tomorrow evening so I can get out to the Amalfi coast for some hiking.

More when I have time and a connection.

the old saying about life throwing curveballs… well it happened to me this week, and it happened when i was already out of my element here in florence. it totally rearranged my perspective. it is striking how one minute i can be excited and happy, and the next woozy with my heart racing. a little new information can change everything.

but i am here, and trying to make the most of italy. switching into backpacker mode again, which i know so well. here in a sketchy ass internet cafe with the keyboard all backwards. why is the damn ‘@’ so hard to do? the familiarity of the weird. it is good. plus today i was hiking, in my zone, on one of the most beautiful coastlines of the world. got me back in my zone. it’s how i’ve balanced myself out before. again, the familiarity helps.

so, back to florence. tomorrow some cruising around with dave, then after that i think rome, then naples, then pompei and hopefully some hikes on the amalfi coast south of there. then venice, where i hope to wander aimlessly as i’ve been advised by many friends i trust. maybe some other stuff in between. if i move fast enough i’ll be more tired when i get home than when i left, which isn’t exactly the vacation i was planning, but is perhaps exactly what i need right now.

While I’d like to be reporting lofty revelations about transformational design and social data analysis, those topics seem like a lot to tackle at this point, especially since I’m sitting on the floor and low on batteries. So I’ll just summarize my situation: Florence is beautiful, the workshop yesterday was excellent, and dinner at Buca Mario last night was delicious (few things can beat a fantastically giant 30 euro aged T-bone steak, except perhaps those succulent shavings of lard). Subsequent guinnesses at the nearby Irish bar (staffed by legitimate Irish expat bartenders) didn’t hurt either.

Not sure of my exact plan yet, but I have four days here at CHI, and pretty much every day has at least a few presentations I want to see. I’ve already run into a couple crews of people I know from Stanford, MIT, and the visualization community. It’s great to see familiar faces here, and to be meeting and interacting with all these creative, curious people.

After CHI I’ll take a week to cruise around Italy, most likely hitting Rome and Venice. For a number of reasons, when traveling alone I tend to want to stick to cities. Looking forward to sitting on park benches in piazzas, drinking beer, eating paninis, feeding the pigeons, and scoping out the locals and tourists as they wander past.

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I leave the actual number to my 1.5 stalkers to figure out. Or you can just ask me.