Paint Horse

So much history and so old. The oldest thing in my area is a child's grave from 1853.

johndeere19

johndeere19

johndeere19

johndeere19

johndeere19

It really is amazing to see all these sculptures, statues, buildings, and paintings that carry so much history...hope you enjoyed it!

johndeere19

Tonight’s dinner was at Trattoria Pomo D’oro. When I arrived, it looked completely packed to the point where I may not even be able to be seated. I stated my name, that I had a reservation, and was immediately whisked away to a second, back dining area. It had a very different feel to the front though and I felt almost as if I was being shunned to the second class citizen eating area. No matter, this should be a good meal. I ordered the mozzarella served on homemade focaccia bread and seasoned with Cervia salt, meat soup with homemade meat-filled tortellini, Saltimbocca Roman style (slices of veal frizzles with parma ham, sage leaves and white wine sauce), and Rendezvous of regions on our pastry cook’s table (Sicilian cottage cheese case, lombardian meringue, Naples style cottage cheese cake) with a glass of Patricius – Furmint 2009 Tokaj to start and Tormaresca – Paiara Rossa 2008 with my main course. The service was spotty and inconsistent, largely due to the fact that I had 2, no wait, 3 waiters by the end of the meal. Additionally, I asked that the Tormaresca be brought out with my main course and I completely forgot about it (as had they) until my last bite, when I reminded them of the fact. This felt more like a chain restaurant, especially after having been so spoiled by both Café Bouchon & Restaurant Krizia and it was clear to me why they were a bit farther down the list from both. I will say, however, that the meat soup with homemade meat-filled tortellini (isn’t that tortellini in brodo?) was fantastic. I used to go skiing up in Mont Tremblant as a child and there was one Italian restaurant that we would always go to which had the most amazing tortellini in brodo, but I have to say, this bested it. While the beef consumme was essentially identical, where this dish really won points was the homemade meat-filled tortellini.

johndeere19

johndeere19

johndeere19

The next morning, my long weekend came to an end. I was unfortunately still waitlisted for an eVip upgrade LHR-JFK (again, thanks for the generous gift…it’s something I hope that I’ll be able to do someday). I checked in for my flight and made my way over to the Platinum lounge, where I got in no problem. There was only 1 family there so I had my pick of seat and the drink selection was actually very good. I briefly poked my head into the Malev lounge which was overcrowded and underwhelming to say the least…back to the Platinum lounge it was. There was an issue with the wireless, so I just used one of the desktops and logged onto EF only to find that C inventory had opened up for my flight and I had not yet been upgraded. I proceeded to grab my laptop, rip the Ethernet cable out of the desktop, plug it into my laptop, fire up Skype, call AA, and had them push through the upgrade! As soon as the call ended, it was time to board.

johndeere19

johndeere19

johndeere19

BA BUD-LHR
When I got on the plane, I noticed that unlike LH and many other European carriers, this plane had a different J layout where the left side (facing the cockpit) had two full sized seats with the middle seat blocked because of two adjusted armrests. I also noticed that 1 extra row in Y had this setup, row 6, which, coincidentally, I had requested at checkin and was lucky enough to grab (I honestly didn’t even know that was the setup…maybe I checked the wrong seatmap on seatguru?). I was able to catch up on quite a bit of reading and a tv show or two and then it was time to land.

johndeere19

johndeere19