The typewriter factory in Ivrea was ... a typewriter factory. Yeah, I worked on compilers but the building still built typewriters. I was there for a month befo

The typewriter factory in Ivrea was ... a typewriter factory. Yeah, I worked on compilers but the building still built typewriters. I was there for a month before I was "allowed" to go to lunch by myself for fear of getting lost. The main hotel in town, the Hotel La Serra, is shaped like a ... typewriter. The Brigate Rosse was a threat when I was there and Adriano Olivetti was very afraid of them. You'd never see him. If you drove at night you were likely to be pulled over by the Carabinieri and have a machine gun stuck in your stomach while they figured out who you were. Everyone was on edge. But it was a cool time. Ivrea was a company town and I think if I wanted to dial the Olivetti operator from my apartment I dialed 6. But taking a shower meant getting up at 4am so that there would be enough water pressure.