With the tour operator PacGrupp (website http://www.pac.ru/) nowhere else, we will never eat

I wanted to share my impressions of the trip.

Tour Italy from North to South (excursion) plus rest on the island of Ischia from the PAC GROUP Company (website on the Internet - http://www.pac.ru/) from 28.09.2013 to 12.10.2013

As people say - first about the good)))))))

The excursion tour was a success and even very much, which was pleasantly pleased.

The first impression, oddly positive, everything was organized organizationally upon arrival in Rimini by the representatives-employees of PAC GROUP without any delay. But it can be - such employees turned out to be in Rimini. Much depends on the personal qualities of a person, there is no escape from this, then there was a completely different impression from other representatives - employees of PAC GRUPP, but this is already on the island of Ischia. Maybe they are there, in the south, relaxed from their active rest, they would be sent to the North for prevention))). Better yet, back to Ukraine. But about this, the bad, as I already said, later, after the good.

We were quickly sorted out in 30 minutes after leaving the arrivals area, assigned to buses, and we recovered on our journey.

Our accompanying guide Eremchuk Tatiana, she herself lives near Rimini - a very, very positive feeling from communicating with this person. The fact that the excursion tour was a success is only thanks to her. Huge gratitude to her not only from us, but also from our entire group of 30 people, which included residents from all over Russia - Moscow, Moscow Region, Nizhny Novgorod, Chita, Yaroslavl, etc. Both organizationally and in terms of excursion everything was at a very high level. With us, no one from the group was ever late to the meeting place, to such an extent Tatyana rallied us that we managed everywhere and always, and even more.

The guides are generally lovely - very pleasant, competent, erudite people, well-organized excursions, we were able to see everything that was possible, and even more than planned by the program.

A little digression, I will say something else. By the way, other tourists, those who traveled from PAC GROUP from the island of Ischia on an excursion to Rome for 150 euros per person, were very disappointed (we talked to them). They were not even shown the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The whole excursion to Rome was limited to 3 hours, an hour from which they ran around the historical center, ran around the Colosseum and the Forum for an hour, then ran around the territory of the Vatican for an hour, looked into St. Peter's Basilica, and then they were taken immediately for two hours to the store for shopping (this was a prerequisite for the tour). And this despite the fact that they left the island at 03-00, and returned at 21-00.

I just thought that going to Rome on my own would be much more productive.

To the port on the island as far as possible from the most remote point - 15-30 minutes by bus (by taxi in general 10 minutes), the ferry runs every half hour, from the island to Naples it takes one hour, from the ferry to the station by bus or taxi 20-25 minutes, train to Rome 250 km - 3 hours, goes every hour. That is, if you leave for Rome at the same time at 03-00 in the morning, then you could be there with the largest assumption at 9 am, and you can leave at 6 pm, in total you can spend 8-9 hours in Rome. And by bus from the hotel, as we went on an excursion, it’s even easier, you don’t have to change to a ferry, train, etc. The logistics and organization of such an excursion is not clear at all. For example, we left Rome for Naples by bus at 07-15 in the morning, we were in Naples around 09-00, we had a sightseeing bus and walking tour of Naples for two hours, then by 11-00 we arrived in Pompeii, from 15 to 16.00 had lunch and checked into the hotel, and at 16-00 we went additionally to Sorento, from where we returned at 21-00. This is the real organization of the tour.

In continuation of the topic. We had a sightseeing tour and a small fly in the ointment, without this it does not happen. It is unlikely that I will be able to give a definite reason, I don’t know how PAC GROUP solved these internal issues. Probably, saving our money, we chose hotels, very quite decent ones, that the first PARADISO-3 * hotel in the town of Noventa Padovana near Venice in the Veneto region, where we spent two nights, that in the Florence region the AUTOPARK-3 * hotel, where also spent two nights.

And everything would be fine, but it seemed that when paying for these two hotels, PAC GROUP decided to save (at our expense or what?) On our breakfasts, which, in theory, are necessarily included in the cost of living in a room. Breakfast is something like nothing - a croissant, butter, jam, juice, coffee (this is an exhaustive list). You won't die of hunger. Especially in the morning at 6:00.

But for some reason, in the restaurant hall where breakfast took place, a different assortment of products was displayed, in addition to those indicated and offered only to us, which all other hotel guests used - scrambled eggs, ham, sausage, cheese, sausages, milk, yogurt, cereal, muesli , fruits, and even tea (we were not given it for some reason). It seems like it is accepted everywhere - a small buffet for breakfast. And all this in the common room, of course, our people also wanted to try overseas dishes)))). But it was not there, the restaurant workers immediately jumped out and practically began to take away plates of food from their hands. It was very unpleasant to watch. At the same time, with their poor knowledge of English. language (maybe they pretended not to understand), we nevertheless realized that we only paid for the breakfast with the assortment that was indicated above. All this would be fine, but why didn't PAC GROUP explain these nuances to us in advance? But somehow I strongly doubt it. Why?

But because already in Rome (two nights in a 3 * hotel) and in Naples (1 night also in a 3 * hotel) everything was quite the opposite - absolutely normal breakfasts, as in the whole civilized Western world))). From here, all our tourists in the group made only one conclusion - the hotels in those small first two towns apparently work in a “close connection” with the PAC GROUP (read between the lines)))), but already in Rome and Naples, hotel owners do not consider it possible to do this.

In general, the excursion part of the tour can be safely assessed as 5 plus.

Now about the Island of Ischia, i.e. about the bad. No, the island is very good, and it is a pleasure to relax there. I'm talking about something completely different. About people and human qualities.

The island itself, of course, is cool, nature, the sea, restaurants, shops, thermal parks, etc. etc. There are many historical places that you can see, which we did in between swimming and eating.

Everything was great.

Even the hotel that they themselves chose, although according to the description it does not match at all. Too bad we made a mistake with the hotel.

It is small, only 68 rooms in one building on two floors, quite decent, clean, well-groomed, excellent location, very close to the center of the town of Forio, just 15-20 minutes walk to the center, very close to the famous botanical garden "La Mortella", 20 minutes walk to the Negomba Gardens thermal park, and we reached the Poseidon Gardens in 40 minutes, our beautiful clean beach, two cool pools, one, as described with mineral water at a temperature of 30 *, very quiet, cozy green area, rooms are clean, cleaned daily and bed and towels are changed already at 10 am, there are shops near the hotel and some very decent restaurants with an excellent menu and excellent and rather low prices, etc.

It seems that everything is fine and 4 * deserved like. But I wouldn't even give this hotel 1* and here's why.

Hotel 4 **** ZARO FORIO - left a very negative impression in relation to its guests. The feeling that the hotel is focused only on Russia. There were no foreign citizens there at all, and as they say, they do not go to it.

The warm pool was turned off already on the second day, i.e. On October 7, he was already with a normal temperature.

Hot water in the rooms disappeared somewhere on the 9th of October, and we had three more days to live there.

They said the season is over.

Interestingly, the hotel took full money, without these conditions, and nowhere is this mentioned, neither in the description of the hotel on the PAC GRUPP website and on the hotel website itself.

About food - this is a separate song))) It's good that we only took breakfast. I don’t envy those who took dinners too - sometimes there wasn’t even enough food for everyone. This is their type of closing of the season)))).

The most DISGUSTING hotel on the island and in general of all the hotels where we stayed in Europe over the past 20 years of our travels.

If you still have even a little respect for yourself, do not even think about coming here to this hotel at all.

There are excellent hotels nearby, and at a price no more than this. Who are interested in the details, write to e-mail: [email protected], I will tell you more.

And it's not the hotel itself, I mentioned it above.

The whole thing, apparently, in relation to the owners of the hotel, and the hotel, as we found out, is private and run by a married couple - he has an unpronounceable Italian name and his wife named Anna, and they also have three minor children, whom they periodically, during our stay in the hotel, they organized holidays (like birthdays) in the hotel lobby and in the bar, not at all embarrassed by the presence of hotel guests there, and most of these tourists were well over 70 years old.

And all in all, 24 people lived in the hotel during our check-in from October 5 to October 12, 2013 (these were 12 rooms occupied, pay attention to this - there are 68 of them available), all RUSSIAN and from RUSSIA.

True, there was only one citizen of Bulgaria, the hotel administration first mistook him for a Russian, then they corrected him (I’ll tell you about him below).

From our group, 6 people arrived at the hotel, including two of us with my wife. In total, 20 people from our group of 30 went to the island for further rest, the rest flew to Russia.

Now in order.

According to the terms of the tour, on October 5, 2013, we should have a transfer from the hotel in Naples to the island at 9-00 in the morning. I will not discuss the logistics from PAC GROUP, they probably know better how to organize a transfer, but does it make sense to bring 20 people first to the airport, and then, transferring them with suitcases and things to another bus, take them to the seaport for boarding a ferry to the island of Ischia, and then transferring again to the third bus? As they explained to us, there, at the airport, we had to connect with other tourists arriving on morning flights from Moscow. On this day, the plane was delayed only for 1.5 hours, but what if more?

Then we would be forced to sit at the airport and wait for his arrival. The logic of "PAC GROUP" is not entirely clear in this case.

Our Tatyana Eremchuk accompanied us to the airport, passed us from hand to hand to the representative of PAC GROUP, who called herself Elena, we did not manage to find out her last name, now you will understand why, we wanted to write a big thank you to her wherever possible, so she apparently she did not give her last name. By the way, other representatives of PAC GROUP also could not remember her last name in 7 days, and then they generally said that she had nothing to do with PAC GROUP, she was from the Italy-tour company, and we should not have been with her at all go by transfer to the island)))). Fine? It is very interesting, but we did not find it in the lists of representatives of Italy-tour on the island either.

Having passed us, 20 tourists, to this Elena, who not only had a sign with the inscription of the PAC GROUP company, but was also dressed in a branded jacket of this company, and having checked that we are all on Elena’s lists and we were given the necessary documents for sending to the island, only after that Tatyana left us, not a minute earlier.

Having plunged into the bus, where about 30 people were already sitting, also tourists from PAC GROUP, who arrived on the morning flights, we went to the ferry. The first negative impression arose when boarding the bus and loading their suitcases. There are obviously not enough places for them in the bus in the luggage compartment, but how can this confuse representatives of PAC GROUP? The suitcases were stuffed in such a way that when, when transferring to other vehicles already on the island, they simply fell to the ground when the hatch was opened, and given the fact that a torrential downpour began at that time, naturally they fell into puddles.

It was very nice to get my suitcase wet and dirty. But this is so, trifles, we tourists from Russia do not care at all.

On the way, this Elena immediately said that we would need to remember to pay the so-called tourist tax upon arrival at the hotels on the island, and for some reason in the amount of 2 euros, although everywhere on information resources this tax on the island is 1 euro for 2 * , 1.5 euros for 4* and only 2 euros for 5*. But the most important thing is that such a tax is no longer valid on the island from 01.10, the deadline for collecting such a tax just ends on October 1. Elena naturally ignored this logical question. Maybe she just doesn't know about it? Only then why did it have to be repeated several times. Our Tatyana Eremchuk just told us about this when we were driving from the hotel in Naples to the airport. No other useful information from Elena, incl.

about the cost of bus tickets, their availability, where you can buy them, and how to get to significant places on the island, what you can see on the island itself and where to visit us, as well as other useful information, incl. nothing was said about the status of behavior and the specifics of the island. She immediately started listing PAC GROUP's off-island tours—Rome, Naples, and so on. and indicate their value. To all other questions - the answer was that you were given documents, the date and time of the meeting with your guide are indicated, and he, they say, will tell you everything later, what he is interested in. You can see her, Elena, i.e. I was interested in only one question - to recruit those wishing for paid excursions. She did not even say anything about how the transfer to the hotels would be carried out.

. And as it turned out, the beach is even closer than ours, only 20 meters from the exit from the hotel, and free of charge, and access to the beach directly from the hotel building. It has its own thermal baths, bathhouse, sauna and pools. And as for food - generally keep quiet. Ours, who lived there, were completely delighted, and we ourselves saw everything when we visited them. Unfortunately, we chose the wrong hotel, otherwise we would have been completely delighted. And so only the delight from the island itself remained.

But for some reason, we, 8 people who were traveling to ZARO, were not dropped off there, but were taken about 1.5 km further along the island, almost to the center of the FORIO town, where we waited on the bus for about 40 minutes, accompanying Elena (who at the same time, she didn’t explain anything, then she just dropped us off the bus with things under a torrential downpour, saying that in a minute a minibus would come for us and advised us to wait for it in the arch at home (who is interested, I can send a photo of this arch).

Apparently she mixed up something, or simply did not know where we should be transferred to a minibus. In the pouring rain, 8 people, there were also elderly people, for far over 70 years they waited for this minibus for about 30 minutes, of course, all things and we ourselves got wet through, especially considering that this arch did not save from the rain, it is located so that from above streams of water flowed along the road, and cars constantly passed through the arch along the road itself (this is the usual territory of the roadway leading up to the houses of local residents). But everything ended quite well, our minibus arrived, why its luggage compartment was filled with the driver’s personal belongings, only 3 out of eight suitcases fit there, we tried to put the rest into the passenger compartment and finally drove towards the hotel. Have you ever tried to travel by minibus like our fixed-route taxis with 9 seats with suitcases and things in the cabin?

A lot was lost back then.

Well, it seems like we would have arrived at the hotel by 12 o’clock, we thought that we would be settled now, we would change clothes and start drying ourselves. There was hope for this, especially since in the lobby of the hotel our other Russian tourists were preparing to leave it, who had already vacated their rooms from 9 o'clock in the morning. And there were only about 12-14 of them.

But our hopes were justified only partially - the rain, to our great joy, ended, but we had to wait with resettlement. First of all, we were handed two documents (I can send it to anyone who is interested) for each room, while informing us that check-in is after 15-00, although it seems that the rooms were already ready (I had already written about daily room cleaning from early morning ). But this is the principle of the owner of the hotel, everything is according to the established schedule. But nothing, you can also wait. In the meantime, we began to study the documents handed to us.

The rest of our tourists from Russia, who arrived on an evening flight from Moscow, were also handed such documents upon arrival at the hotel. There was a certain incident, I already spoke earlier about a Bulgarian citizen who arrived at the hotel in the evening, he was also handed such documents, but when he explained that he did not quite understand written Russian, he asked me to give him in English. or him. language, having learned that he was from Bulgaria, the hotel receptionist immediately apologized and took the two pieces of paper back. But as it turned out, he took it in vain)))) The Bulgarian then came with a friend, a Russian, and these papers were handed to them in the room anyway.

While waiting for the settlement, we began to study with interest the papers handed to us, exactly the same hung at the reception desk. Apparently the attitude towards Russian tourists in this hotel is something. It really could only be written for us, Russian tourists))))))))))))))

This was not seen in any hotel in the world where we visited, and in other hotels of the town, and indeed of the whole island (we visited, we were interested) - a very colorful document printed on an A4 printer with text in huge letters c, and this despite the fact that the staff of the hotel does not speak Russian at all, and understands English with great difficulty (maybe, of course, they pretend to be at the direction of the owner of the hotel - I heard it myself, and my wife too, as the receptionist spoke excellently with the Bulgarian in pure German, and even when we they tried to resolve issues with him in English, he explained himself tolerably well in it).

This, apparently, is such a know-how of this hotel, invented by its owner, but most likely by representatives of our tour operator, PacGrоp. By the way, this was directly confirmed by the receptionist, when we asked him to invite the owner of the hotel to explain the situation, he directly answered that representatives of the tour operator offered us to distribute these papers.

I will not comment on the essence of this document, and so everything is clear.

Just one more thing that struck me. Naturally, everyone ignored this ban, especially since there was nothing to eat at all in the hotel itself (about food a little further). But our tourists will always find a way out - it was possible to enter through the side entrance, so as not to go through the reception, so one went for the keys, and the second or the rest with packages and bags slipped immediately to the stairs and the elevator so that the porter would not notice the bags. We have such Russian tourists)))))))))))). No, in order to be indignant amicably, call a representative of the tour operator and, together with him and the owner of the hotel, resolve this issue, it’s easier like that - quietly as a mouse. And then on the beach or in the garden to discuss all this and be very indignant. Everything, as always, is in the spirit of Russian tourists abroad.

We didn’t do this, so if you come to us with a bag, everyone’s eyes can see what we are carrying there, they almost climbed into the bag)))

I wonder if they would have tried to hand such a paper to a German, an Englishman or a Frenchman ... The reaction, I think, would have been the same.

And when we tried to talk about it with representatives of PacGrоp at the hotel, we were generally threatened to be evicted from the hotel)))). And then they just ignored us and didn't answer our calls at all.

A very colorful girl named Greiman Elena (different than the first one) already with a surname, was listed as a representative of PacGrop (her phone number is +39 349 878 76 23), it was she who directly said that she would evict us from the hotel. To the question, on what basis and for what, the answer was simple - you ask a lot of questions to me and the hotel administration. Normal, right?

When she arrived the day after our arrival (10/6/2013) according to the schedule of meetings given to us with a representative of the tour operator, to be honest, we thought that she would apologize to the elderly who stood for 40 minutes in the pouring rain the day before.

Moreover, we already called her in the evening after checking in and informed her about this fact, as well as about the papers issued to us, the lack of glasses in the room and a number of other minor problems. To which we received the answer that we will discuss all these issues at the meeting.

The meeting was held, of course, at the highest level, however, we did not expect anything else, on the eve of fully feeling the attention and care of the representatives of the tour operator.

Immediately, we, all those gathered, were literally sold excursions from the island to the mainland (to Naples, Rome, Pompeii, etc.). Not a hint of any apology for the transfer made the day before, nor an answer to organizational questions, incl. according to the papers handed over to us with threats of PENALTY. We asked her the question that we asked the day before - do the representatives of the tour operator have any intention, if not to apologize, then at least to clarify the situation with the landing of the old women in the pouring rain.

The answer turned out to be in the spirit of our time, if you are reading while standing, it is better to sit down)))))

It turns out that we ourselves are to blame for everything, we ourselves (this is more than 50 people) went in the morning at 09-00 from Naples airport to the island with the wrong transfer, this transfer was not organized by PacGrop, and that Elena has nothing to do with them at all, and her last name nobody knows her. Maybe she works on the Italy Tour, but we have to find out from them ourselves and make claims to them ... And we had to go by transfer at 18-00, when the evening plane arrives from Moscow, and before that, wait for a meeting with a representative at the airport . And she doesn’t understand why they brought us there in the morning.

It is curious that the same Elena (without a surname) organized a return transfer from PacGrоp from the island to the airport on 10/12/2013. But she never gave her last name when we asked her, she only answered that we were interfering with her work and quietly disappeared from the bus.

The return transfer was no less colorful than the first one, with the exception that, to our delight, the rain from the night ended at 12-00 and we at least remained dry (more on that below).

When asked about the legality and legitimacy of the documents handed to us with prohibitions and threats of fines, the representative of PacGrоp Graiman Elena replied that this initiative of the hotel, they themselves are against such documents (read above what the representatives of the hotel took to this), but she can explain the reason for this - the Russians tourists dragged products from the restaurant to the rooms that were rotten there, and in 2012 boiled eggs were rotten in the room and the smell was all over the hotel, which is why they decided to make such a ban. I wonder if the rooms are there that they don’t clean at the hotel? That rotten eggs weren't found on time? We were cleaned very well. And on this issue, she does not intend to resolve the issue with the hotel.

And the fact that this document humiliates human dignity, she somehow, she said, does not care, but I, she said, am not from Russia, but I live here.

Regarding the lack of glasses in the room, she explained that the hotel forbade them to issue, because. Russian tourists, drunk, throw them down from the balcony)))))) Cool, right? And I advised you to buy plastic glasses in the store)))

Here is our meeting with a representative of the tour operator, she did not really explain where and what is on the island, she said, they gave you a map, everything is there.

And at the same time, she repeated several times that we must pay the tourist tax the day before departure, but not 2 euros, as Elena without a surname said, but only 1.5 euros. To a reasonable question - the tax has been canceled since October 1, she pretended not to hear.

It is clear that after such communication with the representative of PacGrop Graiman Elena, we could not help but contact the CHIEF PacGrop REPRESENTATIVE Bahij Jamila (tel. +39 329 315 69 62).

They didn’t even pay much attention to food at the hotel, we only had breakfasts, in which we were very lucky that we didn’t have dinner, I already wrote about it above. This did not spoil our mood either, although breakfast should be mentioned separately.

There is a feeling that either the tour operator did not transfer money for breakfast to the hotel at all, and the hotel owner feeds us at his own expense, or he is very greedy and feeds us at his own discretion, although I think neither he nor his family eats like that. We somehow went for breakfast to the neighboring hotel TERME TRITONE 4 * to our fellow travelers on a sightseeing tour. And they also complained to us that they could no longer go to these breakfasts, because. such an abundance and variety of choice, especially vegetables and fruits, they obviously cannot overpower. What struck me was that the waiters there literally forced hotel guests to take fruits to their rooms with them.

But it cost him in English. language to say that we like it here, and we will sit right here, immediately set the table without any questions. But still they were silent, everyone can see everything “liked it”. There were no napkins at all, I had to go to the waiter and ask them to bring them. And on the last day of October 12, the tables were not set for breakfast at all, we never found spoons for coffee and yogurt, we had to eat and stir sugar with forks.

What struck me, I haven’t seen anything like this anywhere - during the breakfast of hotel guests, maids and cleaners came into the restaurant, in paper napkins, which we didn’t have, but they brought them from the kitchen, put themselves food (bread, butter, jams) and left taking it with you.

The food is just disgusting. For 7 days there was never, no vegetables, no fruits, and this is Italy !!!!! During the harvest season, when the freshest tomatoes are sold at a nearby store for 0.5-1 euro per kg.

But this is not the most important thing in assessing the hotel, because the food is so, the little things.

The main thing is the attitude towards the guests.

The latter is a super transfer from the island to Naples. No comments, just the facts and the transfer process.

For some reason, we didn't expect anything else. Naturally, there was no representative of the tour operator at the hotel, on the eve of the receptionist, along with the keys, he gave us a paper about the transfer and that's it.

According to this instruction, we gathered at the hotel with our things at 12-30, it's good that the rain ended at that time, there were exactly 24 of us. A minibus arrived, the number of seats was 12, the driver spoke only Italian, so he could not explain anything, we only understood that we would be taken in two batches to the port to the ferry. The first batch left, the minibus, which surprised us, returned in 10 minutes, although it took at least 30 minutes to go to the port and back.

The rest loaded with things and after 5 minutes they brought us and dropped us off again with things in some kind of yard, very similar to an ordinary garbage dump next to the main road (I can send a photo to anyone who is interested). There was already our first party of 12 people. We stood there for about 30 minutes, then a big bus pulled up, where there were already other tourists, we loaded at the command of the same Elena without a last name (she again called herself a representative of PAC GROP, the suitcases were again stuffed into the luggage compartment and we went to the port.

Well, we think everything seems to be normal, now on the ferry, then on the same bus to the airport, as on arrival. However, apart from the garbage heap, the surprises did not end there. Exactly 10 minutes later, the bus drove into the port area, but not in Ischia Port, but which is located closer to us in Laca Ameno, the accompanying Elena offered to get out, pick up the suitcases that had to be reloaded into a truck, and get on the ferry ourselves.

Having already left the ferry, she put us on another bus, and we, sitting there, watched how our suitcases were loaded from that truck onto the bus. Seeing this process of reloading, many got off the bus and began to take their things into the passenger compartment (it was possible to stay with a broken and damaged suitcase, they were just thrown by a couple of Italians on the ground from the truck, and the other couple of Italians shoved these things from the ground as they had to, in the luggage compartment of the bus). Well, anyway, we went to the airport, where we arrived safely, unloaded with difficulty (we carried a lot of suitcases in the cabin). Our accompanying Elena would never have been seen again, apparently she remained in the port, maybe she didn’t have enough space on the bus)))

We all seem to be adults and we ourselves can figure out where to check in and where to go for boarding.

Here is a water service from PAC GROP and, as it turned out, from Italy Tour (it was their joint transfer).

We must pay tribute, which was a pleasant surprise, not all of our tour operators who were there organized such a service. It was nice to see how, when leaving the ferry, tourists were met by representatives of TUE, and of other companies - TezTour, Natalie (about whom there has been not very good information lately). Not only did they meet their tourists at the gangway and escort them to minibuses, these minibuses with their things came with them directly from the hotels on the ferry and further to the airport. Yes, and at the airport, at check-in, there were two flights to Moscow, and we all checked in at the same time, representatives of these tour operators were there until the last moment, until all their tourists were registered, they resolved emerging issues only after that they allowed themselves to leave the airport. So, it was possible to organize everything in a different way.

You can search for yourself if in doubt. But this leads to certain thoughts - a 4 **** hotel, and these companies do not want to work with this hotel.

Alexander, Tatyana, mountains. Moscow

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