I was on a rather delayed (3+ hour) CTA-LGW flight around a year ago. There was no access to the Alitalia lounge, but I could get into the 'Sala VIP.'

However, as YuropFlyer says, it is small and dry. Myself and Mrs. Internetplumber looked around (which involved no movement other than from our eyeballs), smiled at the receptionist, walked out, the spent several hours in the cafe quaffing little bottles of wine talking about how good our holiday in Sicily had been...