Italy 2012 – Headed home from Italy

May 8, 2012 Rich

We are on the plane from Milano Linate to London Heathrow now. We’ll be landing in 30 minutes or so, going through London’s tight security, then to our next flight, bound for Seattle. This morning started with an early wake up and quick packing job, followed by arguably the worst breakfast, possibly the second worst food overall behind the super expensive lunch we had at the cafe in St. Marks square in Venice, that we have had in Italy, period (or “dot” as Giovanni would say).

Hotels in Italy “include” breakfast which is continental style, with various fruits, cereal choices, yogurt, toast, pastries, eggs, etc. Our Milan hotel, Hotel de la Ville, which is a very high-end establishment seems to favor being expensive while providing lackluster food. The fruit was clearly not fresh, tasted of preservatives, and there was some sort of salami sausage which was barely edible. It took 30 minutes to get someone to bring coffee as well. Overall, not satisfied and still a bit hungry. Our first hotel, Capo La Gala in Vico Equense had the best breakfast of this trip.

That being said, Milan is a cool city and we had a nice time touring around during the day.

We had dinner at another outdoor cafe in Milan which was pretty good. We met what we can only describe as government spooks eating right next to us. Two very fit, well-dressed American men, living in Rome, with Rolex’s, who claimed to work for “The State Department” and who’s job is to “Fix Things”. It was fun to imagine all of the things they could possibly be “fixing”.

Once we got to Milano.Linate airport we recovered a bit in the BA Lounge while we waited for our flight. Self serve bars are cool. ;-). Lunch on the plane wasn’t too bad, a chicken breast on risotto. With some crackers, jello, and blue cheese. Not being a blue cheese fan, the crackers were a little bland, they were clearly designed for use with cheese for sure.

I’m very ready to be home and am not particularly excited for the 10 hour flight coming next. But overall British Airways is a nice airline to fly, even for coach passengers so it could be worse. Unfortunately, it looks like we are in a holding pattern for now as we wait to land at Heathrow.