We're ready for our Italian Adventure: Away we go!

 

Can't wait to return to so many of our favorite places.

Monday                                                                                                  October 4, 2021

We are on our way!  An uneventful time getting to O'Hare and onto our Turkish Airlines flight to Venice, connecting through Istanbul.  First travel out of the country in 2 years.  Our last trip was the American Institute of Architecture tour of Portugal and Spain in October 2019.  

We are traveling to Italy via Istanbul because we had originally booked first class tickets for our scheduled National Geographic "Five Stans" trip for October of 2020.  Of course, that was cancelled due to COVID 19.  We were given credit for our two first class tickets by Turkish Airlines and had to use the credit within a year.  The rescheduled NG Five Stans trip for this fall was also cancelled - not only because of COVID, but because of the status of Afghanistan in the region.   So...  We decided to use our flight credits to return to Italy - Michael's idea, really, and a good one.

I have a lovely new TUMI suitcase, complements of the AMA Council on Medical Education - lovely retirement gift.

We did a few things to prepare - online forms to be filled out for entry into Europe/Italy, and an at-home proctored COVID tests on Sunday to show that we were negative 48 hours before entry.  We spoke with our friends, David and Helene Heiner, who just returned from their own trip to Italy and received great advice.

Masks on!  Required for the whole trip, except while eating

All our paperwork and preparations were in order at check in - we're on our way

We're on an overnight to Istanbul - leaving ORD at 9:30 and arriving in IST at 4 PM.  We're on one of their older planes - nice flat beds to sleep on, but not quite as fancy as previous flights.  The meal service is lovely (swordfish for dinner, crepes for breakfast) but now very COVID compliant, and I miss the carts that the chefs would bring by.  I did manage to get about 4 good hours of sleep after our very late meal, so I'm counting on good energy levels upon arrival.

I love that we always fly over my brother John's house in Interlochen Michigan when we head to Europe.

We're returning to 2 of my favorite places that we've stayed on our Italian trips - Locanda Cipriani in Venice (Torcello, really) and Borgo Pignano in Volterra/Tuscany.  And we'll be staying at a few new places.  A return to Lago di Como - Bellagio - after about 20 years and an agriturismo stay just outside of Verona in one of my favorite wine regions - Valpolicella.

Turkish Airlines has the best tea - a whole selection of "wellness flavors" - including this one for relaxing.