Bienve ... bene? ... grazenuto? ... from Italy

- There's a bright spotlight aimed right at my forehead in my seat in the media center. Fortunately, they gave us all baseball caps with a Torino 2006 logo, so I'm able to avoid blindness and headaches. That means every time I get up, I have the option of looking like a geek because I'm wearing the handout cap or showing off the worst case of hat hair imaginable. I've opted for the former.

- The sinks have foot pedals for hot and cold water. That's a good idea -- it means your hands don't go right back on a dirty faucet. The pedals are right next to each other so you can step on both and adjust the temperature with subtle movements of the feet.

Pretty cool, until you hit the one that has hot and cold water reversed. And by "hot," I mean "fresh from five minutes in the microwave" hot. Nothing better on a cold, dry day in Italy than scalded hands.

- Those stereotypes on Italian drivers being fast and reckless? Yeah. They're true. I admit to closing my eyes a couple of times as my cab driver played games of chicken with cars in neighboring lanes and we headed toward a merge.

- I'm could film one of those answer films to Super Size Me. McDonald's is offering the only fare around that isn't some permutation of cheese, tomatoes and bread. They actually have decent salads and some fine breakfast food with orange juice. (Yeah, folks? You know all those "oh, you're going to love the food" comments? That works if I'm dining out for two hours, and that ain't happening. The one time it did, I ordered a pasta dish with salmon and found that the salmon was basically chipped piece of skin. It was like eating a mix of dough, glue and fiberglass.

Aside from that, all is well. Wish you were here. Maybe instead of me.

(It'll get better. It's just been a lonnnng weekend.)