Buon Giorno!

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Geo: 40.84, 14.2529

DAY ONE (8/2)—St. Louis > Atlanta > Paris > Naples

Buon Giorno!

My husband and I are off on Tauck's "Classic Italy" adventure that will take us to the Amalfi Coast, Rome, Umbria, Tuscany, Florence and Venice over the next two weeks.

We are traveling on Delta Airlines from St. Louis to Atlanta and then Air France to Paris, with Naples as our ultimate destination. I have dreamed of visiting the Amalfi Coast and our hotel in Sorrento sure looks to fill the bill. I can't wait.

We arrived at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport two hours ahead. It was our first encounter with the airport since it was hit by a tornado in April 2011. Quite a bit of the glass was broken during the storm and many of the windows are still boarded up. Their signs read “Together we weathered the storm.” It's clean, but it isn't ship shape.

It was hot and humid (101°😉 in STL and again in ATL. Air-conditioning in the terminals was much appreciated.

Although flying business class to Europe has many benefits over flying coach, mainly leg room for 6'6” tall Patrick, the benefits are nowhere near what they used to be.

1. The food (at least on Air France) is a slight notch above the warm meals served in coach when they were actually serving meals in coach. The food arrived prepackaged in warming trays, removed and served. None of that fix it on a serving cart, prepared fresh especially for you that we were once accustomed to. Ahh, the good old days.

2. I must admit the cold lobster appetizer with mango salsa and wasabi mayonnaise was quite tasty. But the entrees (tournedos of beef and my halibut with mustard seed sauce) looked and tasted like a TWA dinner on the way to Detroit in the 80s.

3. Just prior to departure, I purchased a new adaptor for my PC so I could plug it in on the plane, write my blog and do research for our trip. It was not to be. The FOUR, count them 4!, different plugs I brought did not work. There was yet another outlet that didn't look at all familiar; and then there was one that might have taken a regular American plug with the appropriate European converter equipment; but that of course, was in my checked baggage.

4. My iPhone had to go into Airplane Mode, and it too could not be charged for the same reasons as the PC, so I was unplugged all the way from Atlanta to Paris. Egad! You can imagine the withdrawal I went through.

5. The recliner on Air France is a semi-recliner; not anywhere near as impressive as the walled “rooms” on American Airlines on flights to London and Paris. Nonetheless, we got some sleep before the white looking and white tasting breakfast arrived.

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Photos

Tauck Tour Classic Italy Map
Our Tauck itinerary

Weathered the storm
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport was hit by a tornado in April 2011. It's still under repair

Rainy Day in Paris
Air France craft on our stopover in Paris

Comments

[[e-mail]]

I'M SO BUSY TOURING NEW YORK WITH RENAE, BUT NEVER FEAR...I REALL Y DO WANT TO GO TO ITALY TOO......I REALLY WANT TO BE ONE OF YOUR GROUPIES,PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE..........PATRICK THIS COULD BE THE BEGINNING OF A WONDERFUL THING!!!!! P
S,WHAT DO I REALLY HAVE TO DO TO BECOME A TRAVEL POD MEMBER?XXXXXXXXOOOOKATH

[Barcy]

Hurry up and get there so we can all start living vicariously!