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I began acting in YMTC when I was 14 years old. Being a part of such a strong community that allowed me to express myself creatively while working with others to create something positive (a show!) completely changed my life. I had been acting since I was five years old, however, YMTC really gave me my sea legs as a performer. Jennifer always emphasizes the positive, while still expecting a high level from the youth performers. She thereby makes those participating feel confident in their skills and also raises the bar, helping the performers grow together. I believe that people, especially youth, will rise to the bar that is set for them. In public schools often expectations are set low. Having a chance to be challenged in high school, and to feel like what I loved to do (theatre) was important, changed my life. I am now 22 years old. I just graduated from Boston University with B.F.A in Theatre Arts-Performance. I recently moved back to the Bay Area. I just finished an internship with Berkeley Rep and I am about to be in a dance theatre piece that will be at the San Francisco Fringe festival. I feel lucky to be making theatre in the world! Who knows what this next year will bring, but I feel confident that I have the tools to meet whatever challenges come, and I know that I have the passion and belief in theatre to continue performing. I believe that this all started in a large part with YMTC. During one summer break while I was in school, Jennifer let me be a directing intern for Les Miserables, as well as co-teach some YMTC youth summer workshops. I believe that this inviting of alumni back into the community to be teachers and inspire youth in the way that we were inspired, is yet another amazing and valuable thing that YMTC does. YMTC is incredibly important, now more than ever, because it teaches children that art is fun, vital, and powerful. YMTC teaches positive communication, collaboration, listening, and of course practical techniques of acting, singing, and dancing. But most of all, YMTC gives young performers confidence and an outlet for creative fun, and for that I, and many others I know, will be forever grateful.
This outstanding group of young actors exemplifies what live theater is all about. The students bring an honesty and emotional integrity to their roles that brings their productions vividly to life, while teaching them the truest meanings of teamwork, commitment to excellence, and the joys of creation. Bravo!
As a parent of a youth who has been in a number of productions, I can honestly say that the time and money we've invested in YMTC has paid off tremendously. It serves as a great training experience for numerous performance arts skills--acting, singing, dancing, tech work, and orchestral accompaniment. Jennifer and Pam are creative, resourceful, highly driven, and get the most out of youth of all ages. A YMTC performance is a community event worth celebrating, and one kids will remember all their lives.
I am so pleased to see Jennifer Boesing, Dave Moschler, and all the talented young people of YMTC featured here. YMTC is indeed a great non-profit in the truest sense of the word. Great because YMTC both demands and summons excellence; great because they create magic on stage and reset expectations for how young people can succeed; great because they give professional caliber opportunities to young artists regardless of financial ability; and great because in a world of diminishing resources for the arts, they set a high bar for themselves and their audiences. Bravo YMTC!!!
YMTC puts on fabulous theater; they teach young people performance skills; they raise the levels of expectation in audiences and student performers. But most importantly, YMTC gives young people guidance in the skills that are critical to growing into confident, caring, contributing adults: focusing on others, listening carefully, working with commitment, acting with passion, singing and dancing with joy.
YMTC provides and demands excellence for high school and college aged young performing artists, and attracts amazing talented, passionate performers who pour themselves into exciting dynamic theater. My friends and family, who had never before seen a YMTC show have said of recent show West Side Story..."What a performance! It's a rough score for talented adult performers; for (these kids) to have pulled it off so convincingly and so professionally is just amazing"..."My tears were free flowing!"... YMTC has made it possilbe for Bay Area kids to experience and perform in professional quality theater. What a treasure for our community!
YMTC involves youths in producing outstanding musical theater. The energy and passion of the youths is remarkable and inspiring for the audience to be a part of.
YMTC identifies immensely talented young singer/actors, provides them with professional training, and produces outstanding community theater with a passion and depth that compares with any professional show in the SF Bay Area performed by seasoned professinals. YMTC provides opportunities and training for all capable and interested young people regardless of their means and offers compelling theater at an affordable price.


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My Nonprofit Reviews
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One, Inc.; Los Angeles; various pp.; Wraps; Fine; 1954--1956 - One Magazine was a pro-gay publication launched in January 1953._____ . _____ In October of the same year the US Post Office declared it to be obscene and suspended delivery of subscriptions._____That ban would stand until 1958 when the US Supreme Court unanimously overturned the ban. _____ We offer here an uncommon early group of twenty-four issues all from the PO suspension period._____ Each was printed in fewer than 3000 copies. _____ Volume 2, No.4 April 1954 through No._____10 December 1954 ._____(according to one site there were no issues for August or September but both are present here). _____ Volume 3, No.1 ._____January 1955 (missing No.2 February) ._____Vol.3 No.3 March 1955 through No.12 December 1955. _____ Vol.4 No.1 January 1956 through No.6 August-September 1956 (shifted to bi-monthly with April-May)._____ [Attributes: First Edition; Soft Cover]
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RATE MY BUM: Sexy students bare all in raunchy 'best butt' contest
Some of Britain's brightest minds have swapped books for bums – flaunting their behinds to take on Kim Kardashian with a best bum competition.
One raunchy student suggestively leans over above the library while another poses in front of a surprised bull as six boys and six girls posed up their rear-ends to enter.
Others stripped naked on rooftops or beside the River Cam as the 12 contestants are vying for the title of 'Cambridge's Best Bum' with their cheeky shots.
Organisers said all the entrants had 'volunteered' their services and both male and female students were participating in the same competition.
While reality star Kim has put bottoms firmly in the spotlight recently, the Cambridge students can actually lay claim to starting the trend.
This is the third time they've run their controversial competition - which has received opposition from women's groups and has been forced to change its name.
It was originally dubbed 'Rear of the Year', but had to change the title last year after being contacted by the annual competition who claimed they had stolen their name.
Previous winners of the official Rear of the Year, first awarded in 1976, include singers Rachel Stevens and Charlotte Church and BBC's Fiona Bruce.


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Bad dreams can cause a lot of stress and anxiety which can lead to all kinds of ailments from insomnia to high blood pressure and more serious conditions like heart disease so it's easy to see why you would want them a thing of the past. The problem with scary dreams is that they are created by your mind and who knows you and what scares you better than yourself so some of these nightmares can be downright terrifying. The good news is that you can stop the frightening visions or at least ease the intensity and frequency, in the next few paragraphs I'll show you how to make nightmares go away.
The first thing you should know is that if the nightmares are caused by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder the you should probably go seek professional treatment but the following the suggestions below will not do any harm and may offer relief. One very effective way to combat the bad dreams is a technique called Image Rehearsal Therapy (IRT), it is really quite easy to learn and can be mastered within hours of starting.* Get a notebook and jot down the events of a recent bad dream, it doesn't necessarily have to be the most recent if that is still too fresh in your mind.
Now think of ways to change to the nightmare, just go with whatever feels right, write down the new dream if you want or commit it to memory.
Spend a few minutes each day visualizing the new version of the dream, paint a mental picture, it's best to do this shortly before going to bed but whenever you have some quiet time will work.
Do the same thing for each of your nightmares, if you struggle to picture your version of the dream keep at it, it will get easier and soon enough the dreams will fade and lose intensity.
Many times nightmares are caused by simple things such as the foods you eat right before you go to sleep, the reason for this is that your metabolism gets going and thus the brain is more active. The solution in this case is quite obvious, stop eating a few hours before you go to bed. Falling asleep while you're watching a horror movie or reading a scary book just before bedtime can often cause you to have unpleasant dreams. Read or watch something soothing or pleasant before bedtime, it will help you relax plus you'll just sleep better anyway.
Certain medications such as antidepressants or narcotics can be the cause of sleep disturbances and nightmares and getting your doc to change the medicines you take can help. Make sure you are not suffering from a condition such as sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome as both of these afflictions can quite obviously contribute to frightening dream images.
If there is no medical reason for your bad dreams the best thing you can do to make nightmares go away is to live clean. Get lots of exercise, a healthy body helps create a healthy mind, eat nutritious and healthful foods, keep your conscience clear and do good deeds, be polite and decent to people. Meditate on the positive, strive to improve your life and yourself and you'll most likely never have to worry about how to make nightmares go away.


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Original paper
Thermal diffusivity of clinopyroxenes at elevated temperature
Hofmeister, Anne M.; Pertermann, Maik
European Journal of Mineralogy Volume 20 Number 4 (2008), p. 537 - 549
published: Aug 29, 2008
ArtNo. ESP147052004011, Price: 29.00 €
The phonon component of thermal diffusivity (D) was measured from 8 single-crystals and 2 polycrystalline clinopyroxene samples at temperatures (T) up to a maximum of ∼ 1000 to 1600 K, using laser-flash analysis. Electron microprobe analysis shows that we have two samples of near end-member diopside, two augites, one end-member and one impure jadeite, aegerine, and three near end-member spodumenes. Hydroxyl contents determined from near-IR spectroscopy range from ∼ 0 to 70 ppm as H2O. Two directions constrain D for clinopyroxenes, consistent with phonon symmetry. Anisotropy = (D⊥c-D||c)/D||c is near 40 % for all samples and independent of T, where || and ⊥ indicate the direction heat flows relative to the c-axis. Thermal diffusivity decreases with increasing T and approaches a constant (Dsat) near 1400 K. The temperature dependence of 1/D is well described by low-order polynomial fits. At 298 K and for near end-member compositions, cation mass and bond lengths strongly affect D⊥c whereas D||c is essentially constant and large, 3.9 mm2 s-1. For solid solutions, D at 298 K decreases from end-member values as impurity content increases, but D at saturation is little affected. Excluding Li-rich clinopyroxenes, D⊥c,sat ∼ 0.5 mm2 s-1 and D||c,sat ∼ 0. 9 mm2s-1. The values pertain to lithospheric and mantle compositions of clinopyroxene above 1400 K, and lead to bulk thermal conductivity at saturation being 2.4 W m-1 K-1. Pressure deriviatives are predicted from models as ∂(ln k)/∂P = 4.2 to 4.7 %GPa-1.
laser-flash method • high-temperature • thermal diffusivity • thermal conductivity • ir spectroscopy • clinopyroxene


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Dr. Sehat Sutardja – Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer
Clyde R. Hosein – Chief Financial Officer, Interim Chief Operating Officer
Jeff Palmer – Senior Director of Investor Relations
James Schneider – Goldman Sachs
Randy Abrams – Credit Suisse
Craig Berger – FBR Capital Markets & Co.
Shawn Webster – J.P. Morgan
Sukhi Nagesh – Deutsche Bank
Kevin Cassidy – Thomas Weisel Partners
Mark McKechnie – Broadpoint Amtech
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (MRVL) F1Q10 Earnings Call May 28, 2009 4:45 PM ET
Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the fiscal first quarter 2010 Marvell Technology Group earnings conference call. My name is Stacey and I will be your coordinator for today's conference. (Operator Instructions). Now, I would like to turn the call over to your host for today's conference, Mr. Jeff Palmer, Senior Director of Investor Relations.
Jeff Palmer
Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the Marvell Technology Group fiscal first quarter 2010 earnings call. I am Jeff Palmer, Marvell's Senior Director of Investor Relations, and with me today on the call is Dr. Sehat Sutardja, Marvell's Chairman, President, and CEO and Mr. Clyde Hosein, Marvell's CFO and Interim Chief Operating Officer. All of us will be available during the Q&A portion of the call today.
If you have not obtained a copy of our current press release, it can be found at our company website under the Investor Relations section at www.marvell.com. Additionally, this call is being recorded and will be available for replay from our corporate website.
Before we begin today, we would like to remind all participants that this call will include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause Marvell's results to differ materially from management's current expectations, including statements regarding our outlook and response to the current economic environment, industry demand, our expectations about product sales and general market trends, our expectations about revenues, non-GAAP gross margins, non-GAAP operating expenses, free cash flow and GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per share during the second quarter of fiscal 2010.
To fully understand the risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ from our outlook, please refer to Marvell's latest annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent SEC filings. Please be reminded that Marvell undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements.
During our call today, we will also make references to certain non-GAAP financial measures which exclude stock-based compensation expense as well as charges related to acquisitions, restructuring, gains and other charges that are driven primarily by discrete events that management does not consider to be directly related to Marvell's core ongoing operating performance. Marvell management believes these non-GAAP metrics are useful to many investors as they are consistent with some of the metrics utilized internally to manage the business. While Marvell uses non-GAAP financial measures as a tool to enhance its understanding of certain aspects of its financial performance, Marvell does not consider these measures to be a substitute for or superior to the information provided by GAAP financial measures.
With respect to historic information, the most directly comparable GAAP information and a reconciliation between the non-GAAP and GAAP figures is provided in our fiscal first quarter 2010 earnings press release which has been furnished to the SEC on Form 8-K and is available on Marvell's website in the Investor Relation section.
I would now like to turn the call over to Dr. Sutardja.
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
Good afternoon everyone. Today we reported fiscal first quarter of 2010 revenues of $521 million reflecting a 2% sequential increase in line with our guidance provided in our last earning call on March 5th. We are encouraged by the sequential increase in revenue and believe the worst of the downturn may be behind us as our near-term order patterns are improving; however, as with many others in our industry, we continue to be cautious as we operate within an uncertain demand environment.
As investors now observe, the semiconductor industry began under shipping and market consumption beginning in the second half of last year. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, the overall semiconductor industry declined about 40% from peak to trough levels in the last year. Clearly, while the market demand was very weak, it was not down much. We believe the supply chain overreacted to the uncertain economic environment. Consequently in our view, the demand improvement we saw during Q1 reflected the rebalancing of inventory levels throughout the supply chain, OEMs, contract manufacturers and distributors rebuilding inventories to levels which better reflect actual market consumption.
The real question on everyone's mind by now is, "where does the industry go from here?� We believe the industry demand will likely fluctuate over the next several quarters as the supply chain searches for the appropriate equilibrium point between supply and demand. I think this is a part of the normal recovery process.
As we discussed last quarter, the course of action we choose to follow in these uncertain times is to focus on the areas of our business we can clearly control and influence. In our view, the long-term we nurse as the economy recovers will be those companies that continue to invest during the downturn and those that can focus on cost and expense management and improve product design efficiency. Furthermore, we believe this course will ultimately lead to a disproportionate level of design wins of our competitors. In our view, Marvell is uniquely positioned to do this and the results over the next few quarters should bear this out.
Our results within the first quarter reflect this focus as we delivered solid financial performance in the areas of profitability and cash flow generation even in this tough period. During our first quarter, on a non-GAAP basis, we reported gross margin of 51.6% while continuing to keep discretionary operating expenses under tight control and delivered $132 million in free cash flow or the equivalent of 25% free cash flow margin. These are excellent results which we believe clearly demonstrate our efforts to achieve best in class financial performance.
I would now like to review the performance of our various product lines.
The sale of our hard drive SOC products grew just over 14% on a sequential basis, contributing about half of our total revenues. We anticipate the sale of products to the hard drive customers should improve sequentially by low single digits during our second fiscal quarter.
We believe we exited calendar 2008, that is, last year, with a greater than 50% unit share of the hard drive SOC market. We believe our overall market share on a unit basis will continue to expand in the future as we begin shipping devices to new customer design wins in calendar 2010. In our view, our consistent share gains in the storage base are a direct result of our relentless focus on innovations. We are currently sampling our fourth generation LDPC re-channel technology which provides improved SNR, contributes to improved capacity, and finished end product use for our hard drive customers. Additionally, our current and future customers are already committed to using the technology to achieve next generation drive capacity points. This is an area of clear competitive differentiations and leadership for Marvell.
Turning to the performance of our embedded wireless and mobile products, revenues were about 20% of the total and were down about 15% sequentially due to inventory and product transition management by our customers. We believe this inventory and product transitions are behind us and we expect revenues in this area grow by more than 25% in our second fiscal quarter.
We continue to see solid design wins within embedded wireless for gaming platforms, digital cameras, printers, and enterprise access platforms. In the handset market, there has been a lot of commentary about this win momentum for mostly radio-combo devices, but the fact is, many handset manufacturers have yet to make the transition.
We continue to count several tier 1 handset manufacturers as customers of our industry leading devices. We do expect the industry will make the transition to wi-fi and Bluetooth combo devices especially for the high-end Smart phones over the next several years, and we expect to be a major player in this transition.
We also realize many of the low-end phones will not require wi-fi for the next several years. These low-end phones will continue to rely solely on Bluetooth. We are currently sampling our second generation Bluetooth and FM radio combo device which is optimized for this steady large-volume but low-end market. In our opinion, these 55 nanometer devices have the lowest power, the industry's most sensitive FM receiver and the smallest phone factor.
In our mobile process of products, looking out 6 to 12 months, we believe the significant investments we have made will begin to pay off. We have many new design wins both within the existing and new customer base. These wins are not only in the Smart phone market but also in many other consumer markets such as next generation digital picture frames, digital e-books, on-board automotive display systems, mobile gaming platforms, and many other new products.
Over the last several years, we have vastly broadened the market reach of our application and communication process of product lines. We have devices now in 65 nanometer and 55 nanometer which address the market for low power and low cost, also devices specifically targeted for the very high performance with extreme 3D graphics capability and also products with advanced embedded modem technology.
The situation we face in the cellular business highlights are dramatically the chip business has evolved into a system business with a total solution consisting of both silicone and software. The complexity of Smart phones requires suppliers to have extensive software capability to enable new products to be brought to market in a reasonable amount of time. This is the key reason we have become so successful in the hard drive market. We know how to deliver a complete silicone and software solution to our customers.
The days of just designing a new chip and expecting customers to adapt to it quickly without the full software support are behind us. As one of the very few players in the cellular market to have the capability to develop both the silicone and the complex software, we expect to be a long-term leader in this very large market.
Lastly, turning to our networking products, our overall sales increased approximately 5% in aggregate on a sequential basis and represented greater than 20% of total sales. We believe the sale of our networking products will grow in the high single digit range during our fiscal second quarter. We're very encouraged by the results we're experiencing with our enterprise products as we're strategically focused on the highest performance switching requirements. We're now seeing the fruits of design win activities that we began several years ago. We have a deep pipeline of new high-end switching and network CPU designs with many major networking OEMs which should go into production over the next 12 to 18 months.
We are also fortunate to see many of our customers gaining positive traction with their new products many of which we're designing to providing a positive sale win in this tough economic environment for IP equipment spending.
Our ongoing success in this market is the result of devoting one of the most comprehensive portfolios of networking IP. This includes multi-core business class RM CPUs, leading edge switching capability, and advanced security-enabled devices.
In summary, even with the challenging economic environment we're operating the same. I believe, Marvell continues to expand its share in existing and many new targets. I am proud of our performance and our employees in this challenging period. I am optimistic about the future of Marvell.
Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Clyde to review our financial results for the first quarter and to provide our current outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2010.
Clyde R. Hosein
As Sehat mentioned, fiscal Q1 revenues came in at about $521 million, representing a 2% sequential increase over fiscal Q4 2009 and a reduction of 35% from the same period a year ago. This result was at the higher end of the revenue range we provided during our last earnings call on March 5th, while the year-over-year decline is consistent with the trends the overall industry has been facing. Our non-GAAP gross margin for the first quarter was 51.6%, an increase of about 30 basis points from the fourth quarter and down about 40 basis points from the same period a year ago. This was slightly higher than the mid point of our prior projected range of 51.5% plus or minus 50 basis points. The sequential improvement in our gross margin was primarily due to improvement in product mix and cost reductions we initiated last year.
Our overall operating expenses for the first quarter on a non-GAAP basis were $235 million which was in line with our previously projected range of $230 million to $240 million. R&D expenses for the quarter were $179 million, essentially flat sequentially and down 14% from the same period a year ago. SG&A expenses for the quarter were approximately $56 million, down 1% sequentially and an increase of about 20% from the same period a year ago. However, if you recall our SG&A expenses in the same period a year ago included a net benefit of approximately $14.5 million due to a settlement with the SEC combined with a payment received from our directors and officers insurance policy. If you adjust for this our SG&A expenses improved by 8% on a year-over-year basis.
The improvement in our operating expenses was primarily due to tighter expense management as we adjust to the current economic environment and drive to have long-term expense and profit margin. This resulted in a non-GAAP operating margin of approximately 7%, up from the approximately 6% reported in the prior quarter and down from the 20% reported in the same period a year ago. Net interest expense and other income essentially balanced off each other during the quarter. This was a slight improvement sequentially and an improvement of approximately $4 million on a year-over-year basis.
Tax expense was approximately $2 million during the first quarter. During the prior quarter we had a tax benefit of about $5 million as a result of a favorable tax ruling in one of our firm jurisdictions.
Our non-GAAP net income for the fiscal first quarter was $32 million or $0.05 per diluted share, essentially flat with the last quarter, as the improvement in operating profit was offset by higher relative taxes. During the same period a year ago we earned $150 million or $0.24 per share. The shares used to compute the diluted non-GAAP net income per share during the first quarter were approximately 637 million, up from 629 million shares in the prior quarter and higher than the 624 million shares reported in the year ago period. Changes in diluted share count are primarily due to the variations in average and ending share trading prices in the reporting periods reflected in the treasuring method of computing diluted share count.
Let me now summarize our quarterly results on a GAAP basis. We experienced a GAAP net loss of approximately $39 million or $0.06 per share in the first quarter as compared to our loss of $0.11 per share we reported in our fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 and lower than a profit of $0.11 per share we recorded in the same period a year ago. Sequential improvement in our GAAP earnings was principally the result of increased revenues, improved gross margin, and lower stock option expenses as compared to our results in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2009.
The difference between our GAAP and non-GAAP results during the first quarter of fiscal 2010 was primarily due to stock-based compensation expense of approximately $32 million or $0.05 per share. Amortization of intangibles represented approximately $30 million or $0.05 per diluted share and restructuring related expenses represented approximately $9 million or a penny per diluted share.
Our stock-based compensation during the quarter was low by $13 million both sequentially and on a year-over-year basis. The decrease in stock-based compensation expense is primarily related to the stock option exchange program we implemented in fiscal Q4 2009 and option grants that fully vested at the end of the last fiscal year. As a result, we expect ongoing option expenses to be in the range of $30 million to $35 million per quarter over the remainder of fiscal 2010 as compared to $40 million to $45 million per quarter in the last year, representing a 25% to 30% reduction year over year.
Now, I'd like to review our balance sheet as of the end of the fiscal first quarter 2010. Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments were approximately $1.1 billion, up approximately $132 million sequentially and up $310 million from the same period a year ago. Cash flow from operations for the first quarter was approximately $145 million as compared to $109 million reported in the fourth quarter, and up approximately $14 million from the same period a year ago, even on the lower revenue levels.
Free cash flow for Q1 was $132 million representing a 25% free cash flow margin, an improvement of nearly 40% sequentially from the 18% or $93 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 and about a 2x improvement from the 12% free cash flow margin or about $100 million of free cash flow in the year ago period. In the last four consecutive quarters we generated an impressive $634 million of free cash flow or approximately 24% of revenues.
Accounts receivable were $285 million, up about $63 million sequentially and down approximately $85 million from the year ago period. Days of sales outstanding were 50 days, an increase of 10 days from the prior quarter and 8 days from the same period a year ago. The increase in AR sequentially was due primarily to revenue skew as we saw most of the increase in our revenue in the latter part of the last quarter. Net inventories at the end of the first quarter improved dramatically to $204 million from the $311 million reported in the fourth quarter, a 34% sequential decline due to improvement in order patterns later in the quarter. Our net inventories are the lowest levels in three years. Net inventories declined $166 million or 45% on a year-over-year basis.
Days of inventory were 91 days, down sequentially from the 117 days reported in the previous quarter and down about 2 days from the year-ago period. We expect to increase our absolute net inventories in the second quarter due to improved order patterns, better confidence in end markets, as well as to improve our customer service ability. Accounts payable was $167 million, up $28 million sequentially as we continue to extend payments to suppliers to improve our working capital management. This was essentially flat on a year-over-year basis.
In summary, Marvell is one of the first semiconductor companies to recognize the unprecedented downturn our industry was to experience beginning the second half of calendar 2008. We took early and deliberate actions to quickly lower our operating expenses and improve the working capital to better weather the revenue decline. The results of these actions are reflected in the financial performance reported for our most recent quarter. As Sehat mentioned, we continue to operate with a very cautious outlook. While we believe the worst of the downturn may be behind us, we will continue to take actions to control our cost and expense structure while generating good cash flows.
Now, I'd like to provide an update on our current projections for the second fiscal quarter of 2010.
We currently project second quarter revenues in the range of $540 million to $580 million or sequential increase of 40%. At the midpoint of this range, this represents an increase of about 7.5% sequentially. We currently project non-GAAP gross margin in a range of 52.2% plus or minus 50 basis points, at the midpoint, an improvement of approximately 65 basis points from the previous quarter.
We currently anticipate non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $225 million plus or minus $5 million. At the midpoint of our guidance, this is an improvement of about $10 million or 4% from the last quarter and 19% improvement from the same period a year ago.
As you recall, we announced some expense targets on our earnings call last March. Our forecast of $225 million for this coming quarter, our second fiscal quarter, represents an achievement towards our targeted expenses 6 months ahead of that schedule.
Sehat and I would like to thank the Marvell employees and management team for its excellent expense management and encourage them to continue to improve.
At the midpoint of our forecast, we currently anticipate R&D expenses to be about $175 million and SG&A expenses of approximately $50 million. While we continue to implement our previously announced expense reductions, we expect to see those reductions offset by expense increases due to new product introductions especially as we focus on more advanced process technologies. This fluctuation will likely continue in the future. A combination of interest expense and other income together should net to approximately zero from exchange fluctuations offset by earned interest at all cash balance.
The second non-GAAP tax expense should be approximately $3 million to $5 million with diluted share count of approximately 638 million shares. We currently project non-GAAP EPS to be in the range of $0.07 to $0.13 profit per share on the balance sheet. We currently expect to generate less than $50 million in free cash flow during the quarter primarily as we grow inventories to reflect improved demand environment. The cash balance should be about $1.1 billion excluding any special items or M&A activity.
We currently expect our GAAP EPS to be lower than our non-GAAP EPS by about $0.10 per share plus or minus a penny. About $0.05 of this difference is related to amortization of intangibles and $0.05 in stock-based compensation expenses.
Now, I'd like to turn the call over to the operator to begin the Q&A portion of the call.
Question-and-Answer Session
(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from the line of James Schneider – Goldman Sachs.
James Schneider – Goldman Sachs
To start off, could we talk a little bit about where you are in terms of shipping to end consumption; you've talked about the overreaction of the supply chain to the negative side. Do you think you're back to shipping to end consumption levels at this point and are there any product areas where you're still under shipping and consumption?
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
In terms of the end consumptions, we do not have the right visibility to the end consumers, but a lot of our customers are pushing us for rebalancing the inventories. So, that's clear. So, that's why we're also cautious about whether the improvement in economy is real or it is rocky or it is semi-rocky, but we're optimistic that many of our new products on the other hand are also built in into some of the new products. So, overall we're optimistic.
James Schneider – Goldman Sachs
On the cellular business, could you give us a sense of what revenue run rate you need to be at to reach operating break-even for that business and how far away that might be?
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
I don't think we gave those numbers, but you should expect that in every new business that we do, we will eventually reach profitability, but because the cellphone is a huge investment. That point probably is a little bit further ahead in front of us. Even if we wanted to give you the number, we don't have those numbers anyway. It could be another couple of years before that happens.
Your next question comes from the line of Randy Abrams – Credit Suisse.
Randy Abrams – Credit Suisse
I was wondering if you can provide an update just on timing and initial segments in the collection point for some of the new hard drive projects you have in the quarter, Seagate and Hitachi.
Jeff Palmer
I think we've said it's probably around calendar 2010 and that's the best visibility we have right now.
Randy Abrams – Credit Suisse
If I could ask, last year you had a bit of an early read-in to deceleration where back to school was okay, but then going into holidays things decelerated. It looks like you're building inventory a bit in July and I guess some of that support current quarter increase, but to what extent are some of the early order indications in inventory levels suggest saying continued improvement into the back half of the year or do you see that for one quarter snap back?
Clyde R. Hosein
There are two questions in there; one is on inventory. We're billing some. We think at least in some of our areas we have better profile. The demand pattern picked up quite a bit in the last month of the last quarter and probably will continue for most of this quarter. We are seeing in some areas spot shortages. So, we need to improve on that. We feel very good about this quarter and that's clearly indicated in our forecast. We only provide forecast for one quarter. Sehat mentioned we're very cautious about the second half. I think our opinion is back to school is probable, I think that will happen; we're seeing some of that demand here, but I don't think anyone certainly on this planet could say we're totally out of the economic downturn. I think we certainly believe we've seen the bottom and I think there's improvement. So, I would caution people that if you do beyond back to school to the typical Christmas season, I think we have very little visibility into that and I'd caution people not to get too carried away with the near-term strong growth we're seeing. I think for Marvell, we continue to manage our profitability and cash flow, and Sehat mentioned the things that we could control is design wins and some of the revenue ramps we see in the current quarter is some new design wins as you can see from Sehat's statements, and that's where I think we need to focus rather than depend on end markets. I think end markets, strong customer relations serve the strength of our products, and I think we'll continue to pick that up. So, we don't worry too much about that. I think we're protecting our downside and our profitability cash flow reflects that, our expense management and gross margin management reflects that, but the visibility part of it can give you a lot. I would encourage people to be cautious though.
Randy Abrams – Credit Suisse
I think you gave some guidance for next quarter on embedded wireless and enterprise. Could you clarify on the storage, and then also for cellular; I don't know if I caught it, but cellular performance this quarter and then your outlook for the cellular business for next quarter.
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
Storage; low single digits for the second fiscal quarter. If you look at the wireless and mobility for the next quarter, we're talking about more than 25% growth. For the enterprise networking products I think we're projecting high single digit growth for the second quarter.
Randy Abrams – Credit Suisse
Is there a difference between making that wireless mobility, the embedded wireless versus the cellular based thin application processor?
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
It is a combination of those.
Your next question comes from the line of Craig Berger – FBR Capital Markets & Co.
Craig Berger – FBR Capital Markets & Co.
It seems like you're doing a great job in the hard drive side, but we've seen a noticeable lack of new product drivers over the last year or two. You said some of the growth in Q2 is from new products. What are the new products, where are you having the most traction, and what might be the revenue contribution on the new products, say in calendar 2010?
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
We don't actually announce new products in storage, but we really have a lot of products there, a lot of new products, whether it is in the areas like SoCs or in the SSD controllers or in the rate controllers, and so on. So, there are a lot of new products we introduce all the time. We also introduced a lot of new products to obsolete our existing products so that we can allow our customers to stay ahead in the leading edge to make sure that our customers will always continue to be at the forefront of the technology development. In the embedded wireless also, we're moving rapidly; many new products in 65 nanometers and 55 nanometers. Actually I have to say that across the board, we're doing that. If you notice, Clyde also mentioned that a significant part of our expenses actually are as a result of people cost, the massive cost of doing 65 to 55 nanometers are horrendous, but this is an area that we have to invest; so that reflects the fact that we have a lot of feedbacks on new products.
Clyde R. Hosein
I think those are the areas. I think Sehat's point on the hard drive which I think your question is, we don't do like maybe some of customers announced products, I think our performance in that business is very well. Sehat mentioned we have 50% share of that business and that's before we ramped up two of our most significant customers which we think should start in 2010.
Jeff Palmer
There'll be more ramps on enterprises classes.
Craig Berger – FBR Capital Markets & Co.
As a followup for Clyde, can you tell us what the driver is behind the improved gross margin and also can you guys tell us whether you expect any new base pan customers within the next year?
Clyde R. Hosein
I'll take the gross margin one. I think you or somebody asked earlier, we were early on to identify areas to reduce. The management team did a very good job of improving cost and expense. So, part of that is that improvement in efficiency in Marvell, part of it is mix. So, I think efficiency and mix, probably more on the efficiency side is where you see 65 basis points at the mid point of our guidance of growth. So, I think this is basic fundamental blocking and tackling from employees and management.
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
I already alluded to on the application processes and cellphone, and you're asking the base pan; we don't base them base pan today, but we could, but for today, our solution in the base pan we call it communication processes which is integration of highly integrated solution of base pan plus application processes. Historically when we acquired this business from Intel the focus was only on the very high-end smartphone markets, but as we took the business internally at Marvell, my focus was obviously, we talked about this numerous times, was to move the transition of the manufacturing from the Intel manufacturing facilities to the foundry facilities; that was the first phase, and then we quickly also redesigned the new products in the standard foundry's advance process technology, the 65 nanometers and 55 nanometers to address the high volumes broader markets of the communication processor. As I said earlier, now we have products in 65 nanometers, 55 nanometers, and a lot of these products are being designed in with our existing customers as well as the new customer base, and some of these products, I also mentioned, are just targeting applications for the lower cost and higher volume markets and some of the products are targeted for very high-end smartphones and some of them are targeted for applications that requires cellphone functionality as well as gaming capabilities. That's why we talked about having advanced 3D graphics capabilities. So, we have progressed significantly over the last several years into moving our products to address the broader markets of the cellphones. So, the engagement in the customer base is very extensive today, and that's why I also said in our statement that 6 to 12 months from now I think that we will start seeing the fruits of our investment in our activities in this area as our future customers and our existing customer base broaden their product portfolios that will use our wireless chip solutions.
Your next question comes from the line of Shawn Webster – J.P. Morgan.
Shawn Webster – J.P. Morgan
On the inventory front you said that there were some areas that seemed lean and there were some areas that were normal; can you give us your perspective on which end markets or product segments you are experiencing lean inventory conditions in the channel and when you expect them to be normal, and then I have a couple of followups.
Clyde R. Hosein
The spot shortages I referred to Shawn were mostly related to new product ramps. I think we're ramping faster than probably what we thought a few months ago, probably more on the consumer side of it, but I think the most appropriate thing for investors to take away is that our new product ramps are doing very very well.
Shawn Webster – J.P. Morgan
Just overall, do you consider your inventories out there with your customers to be lean or normal at this point.
Clyde R. Hosein
As Sehat mentioned we have limited visibility of our customers' inventory. I don't think it's appropriate for us to comment where their inventory is.
Shawn Webster – J.P. Morgan
Last quarter you talked about some of your backlog information. Is there any of that you could share with us this quarter?
Clyde R. Hosein
At the beginning of the quarter our backlog started off at about low to mid 70s. Typically, whatever you want to call, in this environment a normal quarter, you'd be in the mid 60s. So, we're about high single digits, 10% higher than normal; that would probably point you to the high end of the range, assuming the same level of turns. Having said that, it's very positive, very good momentum going in, but I want to caution people again it has still got a couple months to go before our quarter ends. Our quarter ends in July. So, we got two more months to go and I don't want to get too over the top. Second thing is, a big chunk, more than 40% of our revenues are on the consignment basis, which is but a traditional book to bill type of business. So, we need to take that in consideration. Third is, the last of those two months is part of the summer doldrums. So while we feel really good about going into the quarter, we feel pretty good about it today, and that's why Sehat and I mentioned to be very cautious about, and I'd encourage investors to be cautious not to be too carried away. If things change, we may come out and update you guys, but that's how it is. It started out very good.
Shawn Webster – J.P. Morgan
For your shipments for this quarter, you expect them to be fairly evenly spread over the quarter or are they stronger at the beginning.
Clyde R. Hosein
It has certainly started up strong. We'll see where it ends up. That's the part of caution I think we want to emphasize. We want to be cautious about this in the next couple of months.
Shawn Webster – J.P. Morgan
You said storage or SoC part of your business was 50% of sales today; what's your total storage business including controllers and clamps and everything as a percentage of your total sales.
Clyde R. Hosein
It's in that range.
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
It's also important to note that this is pretty much about the levels that we've been running over the last many years that I know of, at least as much as I could remember. At one time, storage was 100% of the revenue, but that was a long long time ago, typically the rest of the business tends to go up by the same rate off and on a few percentage points. It has been hovering around the 50% level all these years.
Your next question comes from the line of Sukhi Nagesh – Deutsche Bank.
Sukhi Nagesh – Deutsche Bank
On the inventory side, can you give a breakdown of what your inventories were, work in progress versus finished into the quarter?
Clyde R. Hosein
To be honest I don't have that off hand and so we have to get back to you Sukhi; it's a mixed bag. I don't look at it in aggregate; by product lines is where we look at it. Some of the emerging areas are very lean. Some of the more mature products obviously is more close to the finished good, but I couldn't give you an aggregate number, we'll have to get back to you on that.
Sukhi Nagesh – Deutsche Bank
On the free cash flow that you were talking about, what are you forecasting internally for your depreciation and CapEx for this year, and how should we look at, on a dollar basis at least, free cash flow for the entire year?
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
Two things; depreciation should be essentially flattish; Jeff could probably get you the number for this quarter. The forecast for the full year; nice question, but I think I'll stick to forecast in just one quarter Sukhi; we do generate healthy cash flows. I think this quarter we had 25% of revenues. I think we should be in the 20% plus or minus and whatever your revenues for your full year will be.
Jeff Palmer
I'll follow up with you offline Sukhi on the other question. Do you have another followup?
Sukhi Nagesh – Deutsche Bank
Just one last thing on the printed business; you didn't talk about that at all. Can you give us an update on what's happening there?
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
Printed business tracks a main customer. In the first few months of this year, it's been down consistent with that main customer. I have seen some improvements lately though and so things should look up. That's our existent base. The big exciting thing with that customer is we're getting a lot of design wins in inkjet and in other areas, and we'll start seeing that ramp the second part of this fiscal year, and next year that should start improving nicely. So right now that business is more reflective of the broader economy, but it should start picking up broadly. It has started already. That should continue to track the economy. Starting later this year and into next year, we'll start seeing results of some design wins, some new customers, new technologies and some new products that we have, and we feel pretty good about that.
Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Cassidy – Thomas Weisel Partners.
Kevin Cassidy – Thomas Weisel Partners
I was just wondering about the activity in the solid state drive controller business. Can you describe how that's progressing?
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
Yes. We're progressing quite well actually in solid state controller business. I think maybe it's good for me to recap what we do in solid safe controller. We build solid state controllers for the enterprise markets and for high end applications initially. These are the devices that require absolute performance and absolute reliability, and this is what we are known for, leveraging our storage SSD controller technology that we built internally over the last 7 or 8 years, maybe even 10 years. That's how we started. We have a handful of customers in this area, mainly the enterprise guys. We also over the last year or so are also building a more consumer class consumer class SSD controllers, basically removing some of the features that are not need in this market like super-crazy performance, so those are the devices that are being sampled into the market, and we want to see some of the devices. I think at Computex in Taiwan a number of these devices will be on demo. So this is a business where we provide chip software and complete software solutions to allow our customers to be able to begin production quickly. We continue to innovate. In storage, we have LDPC technology, and you shouldn't be surprised that down the road some of this technology will also go into SSD class of products as some disk flash devices are going to be built using less than 30 nm or 20 nm process technology. The reliability of those flash chips is going degrade drastically, and so they will need more advanced digital signal processing DSP technology to overcome the limitation of flash, but again we are optimistic that over time more and more of our knowledge and our expertise in these areas will be more important in this business.
Kevin Cassidy – Thomas Weisel Partners
I was just wondering if you thought that revenue from these controllers would be significant by next year or does it take the nano flash to have to go down to the smaller geometries before it sees volume.
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
As I have said a few times in the past, the volume of the SSD will only be high as the flash manufacturers go into their more advanced process technologies because nobody wants to just have the 8 gigabyte or 16 gigabytes SSD. If people want to have 64 gigabytes or 128 gigabytes SSDs, people need to move on to the next generation or maybe even the next to next generation flash capacity to see the kind of volumes that you expecting. So it's more likely that this grow naturally. People are willing to pay more and will initially adopt SSD. People who cannot afford it will wait until the supply of the flash chips meets the expectation of the people who can only afford to pay only a fixed amount of dollars for their budget. I'm not concerned about that. I look at it as a natural progress of our business. The other part that I feel good about it is that the more expensive the flash, it is also going to be more expensive and more likely there will be market for flash and HDD in PC markets, so they will actually increase our return, and then down the road as the flash technology price becomes low enough, then the SSD technology may even go into the handset market, but I don't see that happening in the next year or two years or maybe a little bit longer than that.
Your final question comes from the line of Mark McKechnie – Broadpoint Amtech.
Mark McKechnie – Broadpoint Amtech
I have a couple of questions. The first is this embedded wireless business that is 20% of the total, I have got it as WiFi, printers, mobile ICs. You're guiding it up 25% sequential. I just wanted to get a sense of how much of that do you think is for the end of the inventory burn, and it sounds like you've got some new customers kicking in, but if you took the new customers out, would that business still be up pretty nicely sequentially.
Clyde R. Hosein
The big chunk of that, more than 20%, is new customers, new design, new products, but if you strip that out, I would say it's up moderately. I think Sehat mentioned there were certain customers where there was some inventory tightening, so I think it would be up moderately. Most of it though, to be clear, is in new product ramps at new and existing customers.
Mark McKechnie – Broadpoint Amtech
Your hard drive business, it was up pretty nicely sequentially, and I know there was some of the inventory burn as well, but did you start bringing on a new enterprise customer there, and did that make a difference?
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
I don't have the number for the enterprise, but some of the numbers also part of it is the enterprise ramp up, so those things are expected to continue to ramp up over the next year or so. The majority of the volume still is in the desktop and mobile though.
Mark McKechnie – Broadpoint Amtech
That enterprise one started ramping up a touch, but there's more to go. You did talk about in your opening numerous design wins, I think, that kick up in the back half of the year. I know you are not giving guidance past, but would you expect some additional new customers or products to make a difference out in October or January, probably more of the wireless because it sounds like your hard drive customers don't kick up until 2010.
Dr. Sehat Sutardja
In terms of the wireless, I think the key is that people need to understand that it takes some time for new customers to ramp up to get the devices into the handsets to get the prototypes all tested in the field, so it could be the end of this year, but it also depends on the length of the qualification that is required by the carriers. Some of these new customers are also addressing some of the new carriers, so if it happens next year, it is possible.
Jeff Palmer
This ends our call today. Thank you everyone for your attendance on the call. We'll be attending several investor conferences over the next several weeks. We hope to see you there, and we look forward to speaking to you at the end of our next quarter.
We thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude your presentation. You may now disconnect.


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Hello Fellow Fodors - My wife and I are in the planning phase for our trip to Europe this September for 16 days (September 15th to September 30th). This is our first trip to Europe, so any advice or recommendations will be much appreciated. We have the following countries/cities in mind with ITALY a MUST. I am not including total days we would like to stay in each city in hopes that your responses will recommend the right amount of days for each city for the 16 days we have set for our vacation. Architecture, Food and History (WWII) are key attractions.
- Rome
- Florence
- Venice
- Greece (various cities to choose from, help)
- Paris
- Germany (Munich)
- Bruge
- Brussels
- Amsterdam
How many of these cities are doable? We are looking for the best 16 day trip of our lives (to this point). Spain was an idea, but feel that will be a trip on it's own. Please help us nail down total cities and recommended days in each city accounting for transportation and travel times. We want to enjoy and not feel rushed, but get the most out our trip. My initial thoughts are that 4-5 of these cities are feasible for 16 days. Starting point is Chicago, IL. Thanks everyone. I'm really looking forward to your responses. Only 4 months away (was told buying around 3 month mark is best). This is very exciting.
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First Trip to Europe, HELP
Hello Fellow Fodors - My wife and I are in the planning phase for our trip to Europe this September for 16 days (September 15th to September 30th). This is our first trip to Europe, so any advice or recommendations will be much appreciated. We have the following countries/cities in mind with ITALY a MUST. I am not including total days we would like to stay in each city in hopes that your responses will recommend the right amount of days for each city for the 16 days we have set for our vacation. Architecture, Food and History (WWII) are key attractions.
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If Itaty is a must, then just focus your trip on Italy. You could easily spend your time in Rome, Florence and Venice, and really par down your travel time from place to place. Are you driving or taking the train? Make any advance reservations so you can skip the lines at say the Vatican.
If you feel the need to combine another city, IMHO, it would be Paris. More than that, again, IMHO, wouldn't be relaxing.
If you don't aleady have your plane tickets, fly into one city (Rome), then out of another (Paris) to eliminte back tracking and maximizing your time. You might want to look into flying to Milan, then driving from there. Milan normally offers lower prices on tickets than if flying into another city.
Would definitely save Greece for another trip.
Architecture, Food and History are probably among the top 5 things everyone wants to do when traveling. Maybe you can narrow it down from there.
Get a good guidebook or two from the library, focusing on these cities so you can decide what best fits your interests. That's part of the fun of traveling!
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I agree that focusing on Italy would be best since that is your main interest. However, you should set aside 3 or 4 nights to stay in a smaller Italian hill town in Umbria or Tuscany. There is so very much more to Italy than the usual Rome-Florence-Venice trio. The hill towns are another world.
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With Italy being at the top of your list, September being such a perfect time to be there, and a lifetime of treasures to see and experiences to enjoy, I highly recommend staying in Italy the whole time and adding Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. It is easier to add it to this trip rather than wish you had, and want to add it to another trip when it would be more difficult. Every move eats up about half a day, give or take a bit, getting from hotel to train station, to next town, to new hotel. In most of Italy, train is better than a car. Direct, city center to city center, no parking and no worries about no driving zones. Buy multi-destination or multi-city tickets (not two one way), into one city, out of another, saves a day wasted in travel and the cost of backtracking.
Venice, 3 nights, 2 days
Florence/Tuscany, 4 nights, 3 days
Amalfi Coast, 4 nights, 3 days
Rome, 4 nights, 3 days
Arrive in Venice, 3 nights (maybe a day trip to Islands or Vincenza)
Train to Florence (Tuscany) 4 nights, Tour Florence, rent car, see hill towns and countryside. You could also use trains or buses and stay in Florence without a car.
Sorrento or someplace on the AC, 4 nights. Drop car in Florence and train to AC or drive to Sorrento and drop car. You could also take train further South on the coast, but for short, first trip, Sorrento, though not actually on the AC, would be good base. Take train to Pompeii and ferry down the AC to Positano and Amalfi.
Train to Rome, 4 nights.
If that does not appeal and you absolutely must see a place in another country, then
Paris for 4 nights
Fly to Venice
When you decide what you want to see in each place, you may allocate time differently.
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Wow! First three responses all saying stay in Italy.
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Thank you all for your quick responses and look forward to more. This helps tons. Sassafrass, I can't tell if you agree with the first 3 responses or disagree. If you disagree, can you give your recommendation? Thanks!
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Since Italy is their top priority, it makes sense to say there. Remember that travel time takes away from your time to explore the places you came for. It takes four nights in a city to give you three full days. I like the first itinerary Sassafrass lays out.
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Oops, sorry Sassafrass, didn't notice your name on your first reply. Nevermind my reply prior to this one.
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Arithmetic: Subtract a day at each end of your time frame for travelling to and from Europe. Subtract at least half a day each time you change cities. Use a multi-destination search function so you fly into one city and home from another.
So: 14 days, not 16, on the ground. If you choose three cities, that's 1/2 x 1/2 = 1 day lost for inter-city travel. You're down to 13 days, enough to do a decent visit to your three Italian cities, or Paris-Amsterdam-Brussels with a day trip to Bruge, or...... Well, I hope you see the point. In European travel, less moving is definitely more fun.
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Any recommendations on accommodations, i.e. what hotels in those areas, air bnb, etc....?
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booking.com is your friend.
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You need to clarify ow many days in europe - not counting the 1/2 day jet lagged that you arrive and the day you depart (not time to sightsee). Plus you need to allow 1/2 a day each time you move from one city to another.
Assuming you actually have 14.5 days on the ground I would limit yourself to 4 cities - so you can actually see some of each one versus spending a lot of time and money in transit and then a day rushing through each city.
Remember for most of these each time you change cities there is a different language, different culture, different meal times, different transit systems. Trying to do that every 2 days can get incredibly stressful.
Agree that all Italy make sense - but I would include a few days in the lakes in the north to get a little more variety.
Or if you want more of a mix and are very interested in WWII you might combine 2 cities in Italy with 2 areas in Germany (but focus on Berlin as well as Munich to get more WWII history).
And you really need to decide on cities and get your air organized (be sure to do open jaws - called multi-destination on web sites - to go into the first city and home from the last to avoid wasting time and money making a giant circle.
Then you can think about hotels. For that you need to give us a specific nightly budget in $ or euros - and what you are expecting for that (cheap and cheerful, modest, or more upscale with lots of amenities).
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I disagree on staying in Italy the whole trip. Too much to see, too many same museums etc. Esp for a first trip.
I would balance 2 italian cities with 2 german, why not.
WW2 in Germany is not much to see - it was carpet bombed and the main fightings took place elsewhre. So in MMuenchen I can see Dachau, in Berlin, the remains of the flak tower and some but ...
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fly into Munich, check out http://www.thirdreichruins.com/ will point out things that are not marked in Munich.
Take train down to Garmisch, spend the night and explore this beautiful area. The http://www.bavaria.us/partnach-gorge-garmisch-partenkirchen-germany.
Get on the train and go to Verona, Italy from there. Explore by train and bus and spend enough time in Florence.
My Dad fought at Anzio, said they froze and nearly starved.
Tuscany can be done by bus and train but would be fun by car to reach all the vineyards. Just obey the zone laws or you will get tickets.
Other option would be fly into Paris, train to Alsace region and then Italy. Fly out of Rome or Pisa or Florence.
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Add me to the group that suggests you concentrate on Italy. You have to choose, but I loved Spoleto, Orvieto, Assissi, Gubbio and Perugia and would take away from Amalfi Coast for those.
Wonderful to be considering!
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Leave out Germany and Greece. Amsterdam, Bruges and Paris are all good choices and then onto Venice - all by train. From Venice drive through Umbria / Tuscany and finally Rome.
Amsterdam - 2 nights
Bruges - 2 nights
Paris - 3 nights
Venice - 3 nights
Tuscany / Umbrian small town - 3 nights
Rome - 3 nights.
With 2 night stops you have one day to explore and 3 night stops 2 days to explore. With this plan you could easily fly into Amsterdam and out of Rome. Good luck and Enjoy.
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Paris 4 nights- take overnight train to Venice
Venice, 3 nights, 2 days
Florence/Tuscany, 4 nights, 3 days
Rome, 4 nights, 3 days
tweeking sass's suggested itinerary and substituting Paris for the Amalfi Coast - the overnight train Paris to Venice can be an adventure - get a private compartment and bring all the food and drink on board you want - save time even over flying
Fly into Paris and out of Rome.
For train info check www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.
The Amalfi is nice but I rather spend 4 days in Paris if you've never been there. You could also fly from Paris to Italy of course.
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I like your suggestion as well PalenQ. It does seem like the typical Europe trip, but for a first timer I would think those are the places to go, correct me if I'm wrong. I'll have to convince the wife to remove Amalfi Coast as she has seemed to fall in love with the Amalfi pics. Any chance of squeezing in Amalfi or too much?
Buzzcolin, I like yours as well, but I feel we would need more time to enjoy those spots by the fullest, especially Paris, Roma and Florence.
I also think Greece and Spain are 2 trips on their own and another trip may have to be Germany, Amsterdam, Bruges, Brussels.
From all your suggestions, I believe we've narrowed down our trip to Italy (Rome, Florence (Tuscany), Venice and Amalfi) or Italy and Paris. What does everyone think?
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Well if given the choice between Paris and the AC I would pick Paris every time. It is simply a glorious, beautiful city with an incredible number of sights and many opportunities to relax and watch the very interesting world go by.
While I also think the AC is beautiful for me it is definitely secondary - but then I am not a beach person and can't sit by a pool for more than about 30 minutes without being bored.
We can't pick for you - but I would get a guide book for each and think about how you would spend your days there.
And of course you can always squeeze in one more place or 2 or 3 - but you are then spending more and more time and money just in transit - and skimping on the time spent in these incredible places.
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Many people do want Paris for a first trip. Night train sounds easy and romantic, but iffy for sleep. I like trains, but haven't done an overnight sleeper in at least 25 years. I was younger then and it was a friend's birthday, so the sleeping part was not important. Maybe you will get other perspectives on that.
You do need the 4 nights in Paris because the first day will be after a long flight and not good for real sightseeing.
In any case, with 4 places, Rome will be shortchanged a bit, but it is doable.
Four major places starts to feel a little rushed, so maybe fewer day trips.
Don't let things get too complicated right now.
Settle on your basic itinerary - 3 or 4 places, 3/4 night stops minimum (for this trip) Best not to add a bunch more places with short stops.
Get flights and all that squared away.
Then hotels.
Then, plan some day trips, but don't feel tied to them. Toss the plans if you want to sit at a cafe or I walk instead. and don't feel bad doing so.
Now, if you really want another place like Paris for three days and plan to fly to Italy, that could be just about anywhere with a short cheap flight. Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris are all short flights to Italy. Some might be easier flying into Rome than Venice, so you would reverse the Italy part.
Me, I would still spend the whole time in Italy! More of an immersion (if that could ever be said for two weeks. LOL), less of a whirlwind feeling.
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I like the Palenq itinerary too but would fly from Paris to Venice as I don't sleep well on night trains. Also would take a night from Florence and add it to Paris or Rome. Just all Italy also would work because it frees you in the future to explore other parts of Europe.
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I said Germany because they were interested in WW11 history. Paris, you could do this:https://liberatedtraveler.com/2013/06/22/paris-walks-the-resistance-and-the-occupation-left-bank-circuit/
You could do Paris and take a day tour to Normandy but would be rushed.
I would skip Venice or Rome for Amalfi coast. My niece just spent three nights in Positiano renting an airbnb apartment overlooking the ocean. They loved it there. They drove and she was a little stressed but her partner is a great driver so did ok. It is your honeymoon. Salerno has WWll history also.
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Thanks flpab. I think we're narrowing it down to Paris and Italy. Now we just need to nail down locations. All your responses have helped us become more realistic with our trip. I think we'll have to go back again and visit Germany separately from this trip, paired with Amsterdam, Brussels and Bruge.
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For a first trip to Europe you have to go to Paris. I have been 3 times and would go again tomorrow if I could. Rome is also important as is Venice, another city I will never tire of - it is unique. I have been travelling to Europe for 16 years and only went to the Amalfi coast last year for the first time. It is lovely but can get very busy with cruise ship passengers nowadays. If you can fit it in as a place to chill for a few days then do it instead of Tuscany. It all depends what you want out of your holiday. After 4 days in Maiori on the Amalfi coast last year we caught the bus to Salerno and after an overnight stay the train to Rome. If you are flying out of Rome perhaps you could fit it in that way.
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If you decide on Paris, then no, you absolutely do not have time for the AC unless you gave up Venice or Tuscany and I would not give those up. If you choose Paris, then give up the AC. Here is why.
Even though the Amalfi Coast is one of the most stunning landscapes anywhere, there are others. Venice, however, is one of the most unique and romantic places in the world. There just is no other place even close. So keep Venice.
Since Florence/Tuscany is right between Venice and Rome, it makes the most sense logistically. Besides, it is gorgeous. The medieval hill towns are really beautiful and the history of each is Interesting. In Lucca, you can see how the new "medieval" city was built on the foundations of the Roman city. Tell your wife to look at images of Siena and Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
As to Amalfi, yes, it has gotten really touristy. However, it is not just a sit at a beach area. As a matter of fact, I don't think much of the beaches, but there are many things to do and see. The great archeological sites of Pompeii, Herculaneaum and Paestum are enough to attract thousands each year. The Path of the Gods, Capri and even Vesuvious appeal to hikers, and there are music festivals in Ravello. It is also one place where ferries are a great means of transportation with continuous picturesque views of Positano, Capri, etc.
So, Armando, if you do your trip this time with Paris, plan on adding a week in Amalfi at the end of another trip - just not in heat of summer. You will have time for more research to make sure you do and see everything you want there, find a perfect place to stay, etc. Your wife might enjoy doing that. BTW, nothing wrong with chilling in the AC, sitting all day by a pool looking out to sea, or on a terrace at night with lights and sails of boats making the water glitter. The Amalfi Coast is for experiencing, which takes time and a willingness to relax.
When you do go to the AC, the Naples airport is relatively small, easy to fly in and out from other places in Europe and easy to get to city center, busses, trains, etc.
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Thank you tons Sassafrass. You really know a lot about these places and are playing a great part in making a decision. How does the following itinerary sound?
- Bruges -> Paris -> Venice -> Florence -> Rome -> Chicago
or vice versa.
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No to Bruges as it takes too much time on an itinerary that is already tight.
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Thanks. Maybe I am just more opinionated or what I like corresponds to what you like. You mentioned architecture and got my attention. Had you said Disney in Paris, I could have contributed nothing. Many people here know much more about how to do things, times, ferry and train schedules, events, hotels, etc. than me. Some live there and have better and up to date info. Count on their help. I tend not to keep good records about those things. If something is really important to me, I make sure to get there. Otherwise, I often meander without much of a schedule.
I have, however, been to your places of interest several times each, and a week or more at least once for each of them. I still feel very much I have just had a glimpse and always learning lots of new things from other posters here. No right or wrong either, only opinions based on individual experiences and travel style. We are all biased, but I think try to give advice that seems appropriate for the traveler asking.
Unfortunately, no, you do not have time to include Bruges without it being a mad rush. Bruges is charming and certainly worth a day (more if you are into Flemish art), but Paris and Rome are already short on time, so you can't take anything from those.
Open to disregard by young or older traveler's who want only a quick walkabout in a city and to move on, my rule is to maximize sightseeing time and experiences and minimize travel and cost from place to place by seeing a lot in one area if possible rather than flitting from place to place seeing less. On a driving or train trip, going from place to place with one or two night stays or places close together that take little time to see, makes sense. It does not make sense when going to major cities like Paris, Rome, Venice.
Rather than trekking to Bruges before or from Paris, go to Versailles.
Since Italy was your first choice, focus there. It has unimaginable variety.
At least 3 or 4 day trips from Rome would give you different experiences: Ostia Antica, Tivoli, Orvieto.
Vicenza, a few minutes from Venice would show you the architecture of Paladio, including Teatro Olimpico, a divinely inspired space, IMHO. It doesn't take long to see it and it is often overlooked while people order tickets months ahead for other things. I mention this because of your interest in architecture, and because it is the only public space I have sat in and been moved to tears. There are many towns similar to Bruges, but only one Teatro Olimpico. However, if you had no serious interest in architecture and spaces, I would not recommend it. An afternoon in colorful Burano would be just as lovely, maybe better.
I mentioned Barcelona before, also based on your interest in architecture. Love it or hate it, you will want to see Gaudi's work in person someday.
Start blocking out your itinerary
You can plan by nights or day by day.
September 16-19, Paris, 4 nights, 3 days
September 20-22, Venice, 3 nights, 2 days
September 15, depart Chicago
September 16, arrive Paris. Walk relax. Get oriented.
September 17, 18, 19, Paris 3, whole days with possible day trip to Versailles
September 20, fly to Venice
September 21, 22, Venice 2, whole days
September 23, train to Florence, etc. maybe car, maybe not.
There are other ways of doing things, departing a city late in the day to have longer the next day in the new city, etc. but not overly important.
Important thing. Have fun planning. Whatever you do will be memorable and fantastic!
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I've taken that Thello night train a few times and yes I can sleep very well but some can't and there is always a modicum of noise from inside and outside the compartment - like when trains are in stations (night trains stop a lot for a long time sometimes) with PA announcements, etc. being heard.)
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Hello all, when booking, do you recommend booking a package (flights, hotels, transfers, tours) or booking flights, hotels, transfers and tours separately? The first option, where you don't get to see how much each hotel costs per night, seems to be more expensive. Can you please let me know what you usually do when booking? We want to be as economical as possible, but get everything we need. Much appreciated!
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Don't try to cram too much into your trip. You will end up feeling too rushed. I would choose 3 main cities and do day trips out of each.
We did Amsterdam (day trips to Delft and The Hague), Brussels (day trip to Bruge and we didn't but you could also go to Antwerp), and then Paris (day trips to Versailles and Giverny). All connections were by train.
We also did Venice, Florence (trip to Siena) and Rome (Ostia Antica and the beach at Ostia). Also all connections by train.
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Thanks dro. My most recent question however is from a booking standpoint. Trying to see what the most economical way of booking is. I was quoted almost $9k from Liberty travel for 15 nights for 2 people, which includes flights, hotels, transfers and tours (no trains or buses). I think that's too much if you ask me. They weren't able to let me know price per hotel per night because it's a package deal. I feel like it would be more economical by booking everything separately. Please share your experiences and how you booked and what was the better way/most economical way?
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$9K is ridiculous, IMO. I could do it for half that or less for 2 people, including nice hotels and train travel and good food. I also can't imagine booking with anyone who can't tell me where I'd be staying and how much it would cost. But then, I've never let anyone else plan/book my trips for me. I realize lots of people do, but for me half the fun is doing every bit of my own planning.
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Book everything separately. Start with the transatlantic flight, preferably open jaw (now, it is called "multi city").
Book your accomodation using the usual booking machines:
- Hotwire
- tripadvisor with sub-machines like booking.com etc.
Use booking machines to find intra-European flights, but book directly with the airlines (sometimes the booking machines seem to offer better fares, but often they add hidden fees - when you book directly with the airlines, you will be better informed about changes etc.).
Book your train tickets exactly 90 days before travelling, using the websites of the railway companies (in your case http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en).
Book rental cars directly with the rental car companies (I had very bad experiences with AutoEurope).
Have picnic lunches and eat inexpensive food from street stands.
BTW, Italy and Paris belong to the most expensive destinations in Europe. Germany would be considerably cheaper. But that ship has sailed by now, I am afraid.
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Any more booking experiences? What should I expect to pay for 2 people (flights, hotel, transfers, tours)...will also purchase train tickets later.
16 Days (from Chicago)
- Paris 3 nights
- Venice 2 nights
- Florence 3 nights
- Rome 4 nights
- Sorrento 3 nights
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If you're going to focus on Italy, I'd suggest to go to the Dolomites from Venice. A stunning place with great historical value.
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Any more booking experiences? What should I expect to pay for 2 people (flights, hotel, transfers, tours)...will also purchase train tickets later.>>
what's your budget, Armando? I can't help with the cost of trans-atlantic flights but so far as hotels are concerned, you'll need at least £100 [say $145 or €130] per night for anything decent in a convenient location, and in Paris and Venice, probably more than that. if you run to $200 per night you'll have a lot more choice and after that, the world is your oyster. I would start with booking.com, put in your destination and dates, and see what comes up. You can select for location, or lowest price first...your choice. If you come up with a shortlist for each location, I'm sure people here will be able to advise you on whether they are in good locations.
as for food, tours, etc. we reckon on spending another £100 per day on average. so a 15 night trip would generally cost the two of us about £3000 [say $4500] plus the cost of getting there and getting about, both of which are too trip specific to predict.
hope that helps!
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Annhig, I would like to stay around $6k
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Even less, as from some of the replies it looks like that is very possible.
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Very possible when not paying a middleman to make all the arrangements.
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Lots of expenses are discretionary - like the type of restaurant to eat at - type of hotel, etc - you could get by on less than $6K or spend much more.
arranging your trains (or passes) and hotels in advance gives you a good idea of what it will cost. Food costs can vary greatly - picnicking can be fun and cheap.
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Annhig, I would like to stay around $6k>>
does that include your flights? that ought to be achievable but it depends how much you are prepared to adjust what you eat and where you stay; have a play around with booking.com and see what you can come up with to see how your imagination fits reality!
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Yes, that includes flights. I've been playing around with flights on Kayak and have searched Chicago O'Hare -> Paris Sep 15th and Naples -> Chicago O'Hare Oct 1st and I'm finding Lufthansa flights for $1000 round trip per person. I'm finding even cheaper flights, $777 with Air Swiss and Lufthansa coming back a day earlier (round trip price). That's around $1500 to $2000 total for 2 people, so under $6,000 is looking very manageable right now. An average of $200 per night (max) at hotels, would bring the total to no more than $5,000, plus flight from Paris to Venice only $150 total for 2 people. Besides tours and food, there are trains and buses. Being that Flights and hotels can run around $5k, what does everyone think we'll spend on trains, buses, tours, food? Am I missing anything else besides personal expenses? Being conservative.
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Without knowing what you plan to eat or which tours you plan to take, it's very hard to say. You can get an idea of train prices online now, probably deducting a bit from current prices if you buy tickets in July when they'll be cheaper on any long-distance trains. I can't see where you'd be using buses anywhere. You also don't have to pay $200 a night for hotels if you'd rather not.
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I like your suggestion as well PalenQ. It does seem like the typical Europe trip, but for a first timer I would think those are the places to go, correct me if I'm wrong. I'll have to convince the wife to remove Amalfi Coast as she has seemed to fall in love with the Amalfi pics. Any chance of squeezing in Amalfi or too much?>
Yes I think for the typical first-timer to Italy those are the ones to focus on first.
If you want to drop a few days from Florence - two days is enough there for many as the city centre is compact - and perhaps a day from Venice - then you could go from Rome to the Amalfi and stay for a few days - but I think it would be too rushed - maybe drop Florence all together and substitute the Amalfi for it - those big tourist meccas can be tiring - the Amalfi is for relaxing- see if you could fly out of Naples on your return flight perhaps.
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Looks like flying out of Rome to Chicago is cheaper than flying out of Naples. What does everyone think about going from Florence to Amalfi or Sorrento, then from Amalfi or Sorrento to close the trip in Rome? I want to buy the flights by tomorrow.
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it makes sense to stay at or very close to the place that you're flying out of, so certainly if it suits your plans, and is cheaper, fly out of Rome.
if that means that you are going to fly into Rome too, you can use your arrival day to travel to Venice or wherever, but don't forget to check how much an open jaw flight into Venice would cost by clicking the multi city button; then factor in the cost of the trains too. then you can see whether or not your Rome to Chicago flight really is going to be the bargain it appears to be.
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Thanks Annhig. I think the below are the 2 option routes we're looking at.
Option #1
Chicago -> Paris -> Venice -> Florence -> Amalfi -> Rome -> Chicago
Option #2
Chicago -> Paris -> Venice -> Florence -> Rome -> Amalfi -> Fly out of Naples to Chicago
I'm just wondering if a train to Amalfi from Florence is to extreme, then finish off in Rome. I mean, Rome is cheaper back to Chicago.
With the destinations in mind, are there better, more economical routes? I don't want to take crazy routes and lose much time, but Florence to Amalfi and finishing in Rome may be worth it due to cheaper flight back to Chicago. I'm open to reasonable options.
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Armando - sorry I can't help with transatlantic routes as i live in Europe - you need US based posters to help with that.
but so far as your itineraries are concerned, for me #2 is much better than #1, as it puts you nearest to your departure airport; IMO you don't want to be trying to get from the Amalfi to Naples airport on your last day. Also it's relatively easy to get from Florence to Naples as there are direct trains that take about 3 hours:
BTW you need to put in the italian place names i.e. Firenze [you want SMN which stands for Santa Maria Novella which is the name of the main station in Florence] and Napoli. And when it comes to it you should be able to book the cheapest tickets as you know when you'll be traveling.
With the cheaper flights out of Rome, it seems like a no-brainer.
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Whichever route you choose, book directly with the airlines, not one of the booking agents. Use them to search, then book direct with the airlines. "Stuff" happens, the airlines take care of those who booked with them.
For most people, the same goes for hotels. Do your research on here, TA, Booking.com and where ever you wish, then contact the hotel to see if you can get that price or better.
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Annhig and Buferson, thank you so much for both your replies. Annhig, you have definitely convinced me on option #2.
Buferson, Will the actual airlines match or beat Orbitz, Expedia, etc...? I did look at Aer Lingus and their flights were a little better directly thru them than the other sites. I still need to take a look at Lufthansa and others, but Aer Lingus and Lufthansa seem to be the preferred airlines right now.
Anybody have an opinion on Paris flight to Venice. I see super good prices via EasyJet and from what I see are pretty reputable. I'm seeing $47 per person, which is a steal I believe.
Also, can anyone provide hotel experiences under $200 at the destinations we are going to visit? (Paris, Venice, Florence,Rome and (Positano/Amalfi).
One final note on the Positano/Amalfi option. A friend of mine just came back from a similar trip and recommended staying in Sorrento, because it's pretty accessible to Positano, Amalfi, Capri, Pompeii. Thoughts on Sorrento? Again, thank you all for your replies. We are really close to booking flights thanks to you all. Hotels and trains are our next obstacle. This is getting fun.
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As Buferson said, book directly with the airline companies. And hotels.
EasyJet and other cheap intra-European flights are fine. Just make sure you don't have even 5 ounces more weight than they allow, or that cheap price will rise enormously. You're going to have to pack very, very light to use those sorts of airlines.
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Anybody have an opinion on Paris flight to Venice. I see super good prices via EasyJet and from what I see are pretty reputable. I'm seeing $47 per person, which is a steal I believe.>>
yes it is and they are pretty reliable but you will need to pay extra to put a bag in the hold, and the normal limit is 20kgs [which isn't so bad, St C!] - I've never had any trouble making the limit. As well as that you are allowed one carry-on bag which has to comply with the size limits but if you've got one large bag each, you won't want another large one as they are too difficult to manoeuvre.
So be careful with your packing and you should be fine.
as for the other questions about airlines v expedia etc., the only thing to do is to put the details into the websites and see how they compare. but the general consensus seems to be the direct booking is cheaper.
The Sorrento v Amalfi/Positano question crops up frequently here; there are as many opinions as there are posters. Some people like Sorrento because it makes a good centre for touring, others like Positano and Amalfi because they are so pretty and picturesque. why not start a new thread and ask others what they think?
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Sorrento is a much better base IF going to Pompeii and Capri and the Amalfi as well but if just exploring the Amalfi stay there.
Sorrento though on the sea has no real seaside feeling as it is perched high above the sea and views are blocked by buildings IME. But it is a pleasant watering hole - at night packed with tourists out for a stroll.
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Thanks Annhig, just did start a new thread. Thanks for the insight PalenQ
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There are some apartments and the odd hotel down by the very small port and beach area, or the swisher hotels have views and lifts down to the water and the beach - one of the cheaper ones [or should I say less expensive] is the Hotel Continental:
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Looks like the final itinerary is as follows and in the following order:
Chicago -> Paris
Paris - 3 nights
Venice -2 nights
Florence (Tuscany) - 3 nights
Amalfi/Positano - 2 nights
Rome - 4 nights
Rome -> Chicago
Was going to fly back Saturday, October 1st, but flying back one day earlier saves $300 in flights alone. Figured we can go to one or two of Capri, Ravello and Pompeii from Amalfi/Positano. What I am seeing is that most hotels are already sold out in Positano for the nights we chose. That's a bummer. Thoughts on total nights at each destination, etc...?
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You certainly will be packing and unpacking a lot and rushing around to fit everything in. If money is an issue you may want to consider less moving around. I don't agree that Paris is a must see destination and would stick to Italy only.
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I personally wouldn't spend the time getting to Amalfi Coast for 1-2 nights so I would drop that and add the time to Venice.
I prefer to spend my vacation time enjoying fewer locations and seeing them rather than rushing from place to place and spending my time in transit.
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Like Jamikins I love Venice but if the Amalfi is such a draw for you, why not fly to Naples from Paris and [radical suggestion here] drop Florence and Venice? Then you would have plenty of time to see Capri, Positano, Naples and Pompeii.
or concentrate on Italy and fly straight into Venice, leaving Paris and perhaps more of France for another time.
Remember - you can't see it all, so why try? I have been planning a trip to Sicily which has proved really difficult because I was trying to fit too much in - now I have decided to drop one of the destinations it has all fallen into place and I feel much happier.
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I absolutely would not rush to the Amalfi Coast for 1-2 days. It's jammed with tourists, it's overpriced, and IMO it's just not that special (but that's my personal prejudice - I hate expensive places that are expensive just because they are on the water and have great views). I would add the time to Venice and the Tuscan countryside.
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Thoughts on total nights at each destination, etc...?>
Fine for me.
You can save a half day in Venice by taking the overnight train from Paris to Venice rather than spending most of the day flying - getting to airport two hours early - getting to the airport - back in, etc. www.thello.com for info.
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