I was watching The Italian Job this morning. The one from 1969 with Michael Caine, not the new one. It reminded me of some sort of combination between a James Bond movie and something in the international heist genre. But probably more like James Bond mainly because of all of the implied women that Caine slept with in the movie and the myriad of cars that blew up and plummeted down cliffs in the Alps. But, I digress. A lot. The movie this morning made me think of the Italian delegation that visited The Record last week. Not because they plummeted any cars, just because they were Italian. A group of four Italians, to be precise, accompanied by two translators were making their way around the region and they found their way into our printing press room and newsroom, mainly due to fellow blogger Diane Conroy-LaCivita. The group encompassed a manufacturer, publisher, entrepreneur, and marketing professor. And this was their first visit to the U.S., though they had all been to pretty cool places before like Tunisia, Valencia, Maldives and even Zanzibar. (ten digital points to anyone who knows where those places are) At the paper, I showed around the group and was assisted by the editorial secretary, Sue, and production manager, Randy. Randy explained the inner workings of our huge 30-year-old press and our new-ish plate machine. Sue gave some pretty cool tidbits about the building itself and its history. The paper, for example, has been at 501 Broadway since 1906, a decade after The Record started, and the only fatality here was when a publisher got too close to an old press in a room that is now barricaded. We were asked if there were any ghosts. I, personally, have not seen any but I’ve heard stories. The visit from the Italians, coordinated by the International Center of the Capital Region, impressed me since the delegation was learning so much about our area’s businesses. They also visited the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Development Center, the Center for Technology and Government, and the Business Review. The group wanted to meet with federal and local policy experts to better understand government requirements for businesses. The project they were involved with was called: Cutting Red Tape to Improve the Business Environment. They were in the states for about three weeks. I think projects like this, or exchange programs like the one I just wrote about at The Doane Stuart School with Northern Ireland, are essential, especially with globalization and the world becoming so flat, as Thomas Friedman might say, and so small and connected. When it comes down to it, we’re all just people and we need to realize there is more to our cultures and everyday lives than many realize.