Planes, trains and automobiles

It’s been a few days since my last entry so I thought I might bring my friends up to date on a couple of my Italian adventures. Today is Saturday June 30 and it’s another beautiful day. We have been so fortunate with the weather. Everyday has been at least in the low 70’s and partly to fully sunny. Dan, Annie, Doug and Lori have left for Chamonix in France to hike and will not be returning to our rental, flying out of Milano on Monday morning. Joan’s brother’s wife, Pat and their daughter, Kate arrived at the beginning of the week and Tom was scheduled to arrive Thursday night at 8:00pm. I volunteered to drive to Malpensa, the main airport in Milano to pick him up because he had been traveling on business non stop from London, to Brussels, to Paris, to Milan, back to Brussels, Paris and then to Milan again. Around 7pm he called to say his plane was going to be delayed and that he would call back when he was about to get on the plane. He was flying an airline out of Spain called Vueling Airlines. Big mistake!! We finally got the call around 11:15 and I headed out for the 120km drive. Full moon, clear night, no traffic, just flying. About 30 km from the airport there is a toll plaza where they extract 1.20 Euros for the privilege of driving on the Autostrade. After paying I looked up to start driving again and found the traffic at an absolute stand still!! The DOT guys thought it was a good idea to pave all but one lane of the freeway. Long story short: One hour to go 2km.! Yikes!! Still 30km away I blasted down the Autostrade and finally got to the airport after 1am. What a pitiful sight. There is poor Tom standing out on the curb of the completely deserted airport. I mean he is the only person at the second largest International airport in Italy. The place was closed down completely and if the police had cruised by he probably would have been arrested for loitering! Another hour and a half and we finally were home and in bed!!

On Saturday our friends Tiarra Goble and Kelli Wilzoch arrived to visit Italy for a week and have left this morning for a two day trip to Venice. Keeping with the continual screw ups by the airlines Tiarra’s luggage was left back in New Jersey! Fortunately I was going back to the airport on Sunday to pick up our old friend Denis who had arrived after a week of business in London. I had a full car going to the airport as Pat, Tom and Kate were with me as was Dan, Annie, Doug and Lori's luggage that they had left behind in Bellano. They were going to an airport hotel as their flight was the next morning. I dropped off the luggage to await Dan et al's arrival. Thank God Tiarra’s suitcases were waiting for me, kind of. There were two rooms full of lost luggage. The clerk helping me said they could be anywhere in the rooms. Some bags were so dusty they had to be sitting there for years. We looked in the non-dusty area and after about 30 minutes we located them. Calling Tiarra for better descriptions also helped. Do yourself a favor and get a non black suitcase. 90% of suitcases are black!!

Joan, Denis and I may take a drive to Switzerland today. We’re only about 30km from the border and it’s a beautiful drive although there is a thunderstorm hitting us at the moment. Joan and I have now been here two full weeks and still have five to go. As most of you know because of Joan’s travel business we have been to Europe many times. Without question this has been the most delightful experience of all. We look forward to five more weeks of travel, friends, relaxation, food and drink.Ciao for now.