So, as I've been mentioning for weeks now, that was my last set prior to a big upcoming vacation. If you're active over on Discord, you've probably already seen my talking about it, but I'm heading out tomorrow for Italy! This is a big change from any of the vacations I've taken since starting this blog, which have all been retail road trips (to borrow Retail Retell's term) -- this one is neither a road trip (I'm hardly going to be in any road-based vehicle on this trip, sticking to planes, trains, boats, and trains on boats) nor very retail-focused (I'll probably take a few photos, but I'm unsure if I'll do any full sets -- this is really a transportation-geek trip for me). If you want to follow along live, I'm definitely going to be posting a bunch of stuff on Discord during my trip (let me know if you aren't on the Discord server and want to join), and I'll post some of it on here when I get back. But that's it for here for now! I'm flying back a week from Monday, and posting will resume sometime after that depending on how exhausted and jetlagged I am.
Sounds like fun! I've been to Italy a few times, but not since 2005 and I spent my time in northern Italy. I guess I'm the weirdo who has been to Italy multiple times and who has never been to Rome, lol. Maybe you'll get a chance to go to Autogrill (I reckon they are still around) and see if they are still as unexpected as they were when I went there in the early 2000s!
ReplyDeleteI hope FCO is nicer than LIN and especially MXP! I suspect it isn't, I'm thinking there are certain things which Italians just don't do well, lol. I have to admit that I wasn't expecting you to fly on a Star Alliance airline. Flying to IST to end up in FCO is probably something I would complain about if I had to do it, but I'm sure being in business class will make it much more tolerable! The last time I flew to Milan, it was through EWR and I'm sure IST is a lot nicer than EWR, lol. I know that isn't saying much, but at least EWR was nicer than MXP!
Maybe you can do a blog post about whatever interesting things you see, retail or not. I'm certainly not opposed to seeing airplane and airport images on here as you well know. In fact, I'm wondering what planes you're going to be on during those flights, lol. Anyway, have fun!
I've been to Italy quite a few times over the years, but not since I graduated high school in 2015! I do remember Autogrill, but I'm not sure if I ever ate anything from there -- maybe the one in the airport at some point. It looks like they've closed pretty much all of their non-highway locations by now, so I doubt I'll get back to one!
DeleteI've never flown out of Linate, but FCO is definitely a step above MXP in my opinion. They've done a lot of work to FCO since I was last there too (in part because of a fire in Terminal 3), and it will be interesting to see what it's like now!
In terms of airlines, I don't fly anywhere near enough to build up frequent flyer points or status with any airline/alliance, so I just went with whatever was cheapest. Turkish is by far the cheapest business class option out of Seattle, and from Seattle, flying through IST is about the same distance as flying through New York (which surprised me when I first looked it up too), making it a shorter option than a lot of flights with the US airlines (connecting through places like ATL, DFW, or even SFO on the really weird flights United likes to offer me). I think Seattle is about the only place in the US where it actually makes some sense to fly through IST on the way to Europe!
I'm sure I'll post something about this trip -- I'm just not sure whether it will be a single quick blog post or a more in-depth series. I know I want to do a full airport tour series similar to my retail tours at some point, but that won't be on this trip!
Have a good trip! I've never left the country, so it will be fun to see the photos you take on this trip (retail or not).
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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