Arrival in Bellano, Italy

Good morning!

It is Fathers Day, June 17, 2007 6:00am!!

Joan and I arrived in Bellano, Italy yesterday at noon after a torturous journey from Phoenix on Thursday and Friday. After being graciously picked up on time by Francesca at our home and dropped off at Sky Harbor we had an on time flight to Cincinnati and caught our connecting flight to Amsterdam without any problems. We flew (upgraded to Business class) to Amsterdam without the usual tail wind (so said the pilot) and arrived about 45 minutes late. Business Class on Delta is like flying tied to the wing compared to flying Business Class on Air New Zealand!!

We assumed we would have no problem making our next connecting flight to our final destination of Milan, Italy as we departed the plane. For those who have never been in the Amsterdam airport it is humongous!! We started walking towards out departing gate and walked and walked and walked!!! The airport is like a city! Beautiful shops everywhere and arrival and departure gates sprinkled in between. And, oh yes, security and passport controls. As we got close to our gate we needed to stop and get our boarding passes since we were not able to secure them in Phoenix. (Different airline from Amsterdam to Milan) We felt like we were at the Department of Motor Vehicles as we pulled a number at the KLM counter. Why KLM? Well, of course, because our ticket indicated we were flying KLM. As the clock ticked away and our departure time got closer we finally had our number called. Joan went up to the counter and was promptly told that we should have been over at the Alitalia counter because even though the ticket said KLM they were not the primary carrier for the flight, Alitalia was. There was no line at the Alitalia counter so it seemed to be no big deal. We gave our tickets to the clerk and she said everything was in order except for one thing: our seats had been given away to others because the flight was about to leave. Actually there was still about 15 minutes to departure. Naturally I was in a good mood at this juncture and screamed, “ What ?????!!!!!!!!. To make a long story short there was no changing them. We were off the flight! For those who know me well, yes, my bad side showed up very vividly. I knew Joan was very pissed too since she didn’t try to shut me up.

After much glaring and a few mean words off we trudged to the Alitalia ticket desk to try for another flight. Uh oh, what a nightmare! Apparently the next flight to Milan had been canceled and there were a crowd of angry Italians (and others) spoiling for a fight. There were only two agents working the desk and a hundred people at least demanding action!! All of a sudden some Italian shouted something and almost everyone shouted, in unison, some response. This was repeated four or five times. Very loud and very convincing! We interpreted it something like, “Alitalia, you suck, Alitalia, you suck, Alitalia, you suck!! Wow, it was awesome!

I told Joan this was going to be a battle and that we had to be a little pushy, so naturally we found ourselves near the front of the line in short order. Hey, you snooze you lose! At this point I get the bright idea to call Francesca in Phoenix to ask her to get on line and find us a flight (forgetting it’s 3am in Arizona)even though I woke up the Browner household Francesca was very helpful, letting us know we were basically screwed for the rest of the day. We finally decided we would be willing to spend the night in Amsterdam and get a flight in the morning. We were second in line at this time when the woman clerk got up in frustration and walked out! Unbelievable. Anyway after about 10 minutes she came back and we were soon booked on a flight at 7:15 the next morning. Talk about irony! They comped our room and our meals. We got to the hotel at 2PM, had lunch and went to bed at 3pm. Taking no chances we were first in line for breakfast at 4am and at the airport at 5:30. You would think on a Saturday morning there would be no one there. Wrong!! It was like the middle of the day! After the usual security hassles we finally got to our gate and left for Milan.

We landed in Milan and held our breath as the luggage came out wondering if it made it. We had not seen it since we checked it in Phoenix two days previous. Of course we were still wearing our traveling clothes. Out it came! Whew!! As soon as we came out of customs a women was there to lead us to our car. We “purchased” a Peugeot for a predetermined buyback price. To me it’s the same as a rental except that it’s a brand new car. Off we went to our rental home and were greeted enthusiastically by the owners. Since we had seen the home last November there were no surprises except it was prettier because it is now summer and everything is quite green. We are about 400ft above Lake Como with an overwhelmingly spectacular view.

It’s party cloudy this morning but promises to be nice today. Dan and Annie, along with Doug and Lori Philippone arrive this afternoon for about a week. We intend to do some hiking and sightseeing with them but first today I need to figure out the fancy coffee brewer.

Enough for now.

(Dan added some pictures: the first is a view from the balcony at our place and the second is a shot of Veranna from the Bellagio ferry.)