Friday, July 17, 2009

Italia - day one

We've been back a bit longer than we were gone to Italy. To say it's beautiful and a trip that EVERYONE should take would be an immense understatement. If you've been there, you know. And if you haven't gone yet, I want to share a slice of Tuscany with you each day, one day of our trip at a time. 

Day One
We left Wichita mid-morning which made this night owl happy. Flew to Chicago, and had a 4-hour layover. But not much can dampen your mood when you're headed to one of the most beautiful scenic places in the world. We almost didn't make our flight (we were supposed to go get our boarding passes at the gate and forgot - ooops). But the travel agent with AHI was there and took care of us. We were bumped up to Business Class and I was lovin' it. Randy wasn't letting himself enjoy it (he felt guilty we were the ones who were upgraded and the other people in our group didn't get upgraded). Silly boy. It was fabulous! 


Gettin' comfy in our seats. (Damn, I could get used to this!)

A glass of bubbly before we take off? Absolutely!

Menu choices - decisions, decisions.

I went with the mixed green salad with a small dollup of a fancy potato salad as first course.

Baked cod over fingerling potatoes and artichoke hearts (they had me at artichoke hearts) with a wonderfully light white wine butter sauce.

Randy had Gnocci as his second course. It was good, but nothing as fabulous as what we were about to experience in Italy.

A nice refreshing third course.

Watching chick flicks like "He's Just Not that Into You" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic" while sitting right next to Randy was pretty much heaven. He watched what he wanted (and ended up watching five movies instead of sleeping on the way over). Naughty boy. I slept about 3.5 hours and was woken up by yet another delicious meal. I knew we were off to a magnificent start on this vacation!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

You got off to a pretty good start! How nice to be upgraded to business class...especially on a TransAtlantic flight! I hope I am so lucky one day. What is AHI? Do they do guided tours for adults?

Adriene Rathbun said...

P - you will be so lucky. And hopefully on your trip to London this fall! :) AHI is Alumni Holiday International. We went with a group of alumnus from my husband's alma matter. They're guided tours with English-speaking Italians doing the tours so you get a lot of local flair. We will do another trip for sure. (Check with your university's alumni association - most of them do these.)

Ryan Michael said...

That's Business? I'd love to see First!! Nice! That makes a world of difference on those loooong flights. Not that I would know. :-(