In June 5-11, 2005, I attended a weeklong workshop, the DELOS Summer School on Digital Preservation, in Sophia Antipolis, France. Sophia Antipolis is a 2,400 hectare technology park in southeast France, and as of 2021 home to 2,500 companies, valued today at more than 5.6 billion euros and employing more than 38,000 people counting more than 80 nationalities. The park is known to be Europe’s first science and technology hub. I was able to attend this workshop because I had been awarded a $5000 research prize, the Corrigan Solari Library Faculty Fellowship Award in 2004 and I chose to use my funds to attend professional development opportunities outside the United States. I also combined this professional trip with my love of travel and visited Nice, Antibes, and Sanremo, Italy.
The workshop was amazing and introduced me to digital collections experts from around the world. I really had to stretch myself professionally to keep up.
2005 was a great year for me, personally and professionally. I turned 50, I had lost 40 pounds and I was as active professionally as I have ever been, traveling around the United States, the UK, and Europe attending top-level workshops on digital libraries or giving presentations on the work I was involved with (enter 2005 in search box).
I no longer remember the exact itinerary I followed but I know that I stayed in Nice for a couple of days before heading to Antibes where I stayed for the conference (June 5-11). Nice was beautiful, in its own way, but I remember being under impressed with the other tourists (lots of loud Russians) and the beaches (rocky). One of the highlights of my visit to Antibes was the Musée Picasso at Juan-les-Pins. I alsp enjoyed getting a fresh croissant from the pâtisserie near the hotel every morning and just sitting at a table watching the people come and go.
Following the workshop, I took the train into Italy for the day. The train ran along the Mediterranean coast and passed through Menton, a town on the French Riviera. The views from the train were spectacular. I got off the train at the first stop in Italy, which was Sanremo (or San Remo). I stopped and had a late lunch at a sidewalk restaurant and then went into a wine tasting shop that was getting ready to close for the day. The town itself was taking an afternoon break from a busy lunchtime and we had some difficulty finding a place to have lunch.
My knowledge of Italian consisted of one year of study back in the early 1980s when I worked at Bryn Mawr College, The wine shop owner enjoyed the visit from me and my ex and he gave us tons of wine to sample for free, since he was going to throw it out at the end of the day anyway. I remember telling him he was a “diavolo” for getting us so drunk. That is my entire experience in Italy, one drunken afternoon in a town that was very quiet and sleepy.
Lifetime musings 