Alright -- this is my first trip report here on FlyerTalk. Forgive me if it doesn't include some of the details or if it holds too much info regarding work; but perhaps I'll get better as time goes on...

Those of you who fly near the front of an aircraft regularly can ignore the discussion on business class seats if you'd like. Unlike you, I rarely get to fly outside of coach... Obviously, I only wish every trip was business class!!!

ORD/MXP/FCO
18 July 00 - 21 July 00

Where to begin...

I suppose I should preface this by saying I've never been to Rome. During my studies in Europe, I was fortunate enough to make it to Florence, Venice, Pisa, and Bologna, but for some reason, I never made it to the Eternal City. Fortunately, the opportunity presented itself, and needless to say, I was excited at the prospect of making the trip.

Actually, it all happened very quickly. Two weeks ago, an Italian colleague of mine named Piervittorio asked me if I was very busy and if I would work with him on a small but quick project for Alitalia. Recently, KLM informed Alitalia that it was backing out of the merging process primarily because (and I quote) "the Milan-Malpensa hub hadn't developed as smoothly as they'd liked." AZ felt KL was probably already in bed with BA, and was simply looking for a way out of the merger. As such, AZ needed an "outside" opinion to be formed on the relative growth and competitiveness of the Malpensa hub in the last few years, as well as the effects of several governmental decrees introduced by the last two Italian Ministers of Transportation.

Piervittorio just happened to have met an associate of the Executive Vice President of Alliances and Business Development at the ACI Europe conference in Geneva last year. After a few months of networking, he found out that they had a common friend or two; and by staying in touch, Piervittorio was virtually handed this project ten days later.

I said I was busy, but could definitely make time to work on something other than O'Hare! Excited at the prospect of working on something European, I worked extremely hard that week tying up loose ends and such, and making sure everything would be ready for my boss when he came to work the following Monday. Anyway, Pier indicated that if we worked our tails off over that coming weekend, it may culminate in a trip to Rome for both of us. Naturally, I was VERY interested. We worked all day that Saturday and Sunday, putting together an entire package. We pulled data from various resources, and before we knew it, we had a nice 50-page document, complete with graphs, charts, tables, text, and an additional 25-page technical appendix. We polished everything off by Monday evening, and had our company's VP of Finance and two F&O Directors looking through the material. We added their suggestions to the package on Tuesday, and I was informed that I could go to Rome to present the information with Piervittorio. (I had packed that morning, cautiously optimistic that I would be allowed to go.)

After printing out 5 color copies of our presentation, a cab took us to Michigan Ave., and Piervittorio and I purchased our round-trip tickets to Rome. We arrived at ORD about 90 minutes before flight time, and business class check-in was quick, friendly, and efficient.

Next, we headed to the VIP lounge, where everyone seemed to know Piervittorio. (As the only Italian in our office, he's been back and forth to Rome and/or Milan numerous times on AZ.) The lounge was nothing spectacular -- numerous block-like leather seats in a small space -- about what you'd expect for a foreign carrier with one flight per day... They did have a nifty espresso machine as well as a nice spread of snacks and refreshments.

After a few cups of espresso and polite conversation with several AZ employees, we boarded the 767-300 as they were about to close the door. We got to our seats 4H and 4J, and were pleasantly surprised that we were 2 of 9 people in the entire business class. We drank champagne as the crew showered us with periodicals and newspapers and attention...

Alitalia has an interesting business/first class in that it's not United or Delta or American, but it's not too shabby either. There are no individual video screens, meaning there was only one video panel for the entire forward cabin. The two lavoratories were rather small, and it did not seem to bother any of the flight attendants that numerous passengers from coach wandered forward to use them. The food was quite frankly mediocre, and the entree was simply awful. I'm still not sure it was real food, though it resembled meat of some sort, wrapped in a dullish gray cabbage leaf. Fortunately, before the entree, there were several "first offerings." I thoroughly enjoyed the pasta dishes offered, and the wine, cheese, and fruit tray was a nice treat. (Judging from the entree, it was no wonder Piervittorio opted for two portions of the pasta rather than the pseudo-beef.) The coffee and dessert tray was great as well -- filled with fine chocolates, biscotti, and Italian cakes.

The seats in Alitalia's business class were fairly nice. Though they didn't recline all the way, they reclined enough; and of course the width is fantastic compared to coach. The foot rest was also a fantastic feature, and I didn't hesitate to lean back and relax in relaxing comfort.

As dawn arrived, we enjoyed a nice breakfast of granola cereal served with yogurt, and a healthy selection of warm biscuits and a variety of italian meats and cheeses. The coffee hit the spot as well, and woke us up just in time to catch the spectacular view of the Alps. Every time I fly over them, I cannot take my eyes off of the beautiful snow-capped peaks and picturesque towns on the hillsides and in the valleys. The Alps are so addictive...

We arrived in Milan and the golden sunshine lit up the green forests that surround the airport. Naturally, we hardstanded (like a typical European hub), and were pleasantly surprised at how quickly the ground crew responded with ground service equipment. Piervittorio and I got off the plane last, savoring every comment from exiting passengers on how nice it must have been to fly in business class. Indeed! We got down to the bus and were quickly shuttled to the main terminal, where we immediately sought out the Alitalia arrivals lounge. Nothing spectacular there, but at least there were huge individual rooms for using the bathroom and freshening up.

Milan-Malpensa is a brand new airport, and a fairly new hub for Northern Italy. As such, it was brimming with Alitalia flights, but not remotely close in operations to the big guns like Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, etc. This was more along the lines of Madrid or Zurich. In any event, we then made our way out to the Schengen area and hopped a battle-weary MD80 down to Rome. First class is no great shakes on the AZ domestic flights, and quite frankly this flight should have been called the Alitalia Employee Shuttle. I would estimate (not jokingly) that the flight was made up of 70% AZ employees! It was unbelievable! But I suppose it was not unexpected, in that most international operations for AZ moved up to Malpensa from Rome, so many crews are based at FCO.

We picked up our car -- a Mercedes Class A -- perhaps the weirdest car in Europe. It looks like a mini-SUV -- sort of a cross between a SmartCar, a station wagon, and a VW bug. Next, we headed to the Rome Hilton and got settled into our rooms on the Executive Suite floor. As you would expect from a new Hilton, the rooms were nice, and I always like chrome bathroom fixtures. Naturally, I couldn't get into the shower quick enough! I put on my thick white bathrobe, and waited to call Atlanta to surprise my mom and dad... ;-) I hesitated to go to sleep, since our presentation was about two hours away, so I left the shower running and hung my clothes to get out the wrinkles. Next, I made a pot of coffee and flipped on the tube to see what languages and channels were offered. 8 Italian, 2 French, 3 German, and 4 English (including BBC1 and CNN International). Not bad. After nearly dosing off a few times, I got dressed and headed down to the executive lounge. They had sandwiches, wafers, and mineral water there, so I tanked up on a few sandwiches and a Coke.

Next, we headed to Alitalia's executive headquarters -- about half way between the Airport (near the sea) and Rome (about 4 miles away). We were escorted to the executive level, and then set up our PowerPoint presentation in a plush boardroom. Coffee and refreshments were served, and the Executive VP came into the room with one of his head engineers. Pleasantries were exchanged, and he eyed the package and immediately began pouring over the data. The first thing I heard him say was, "This is not what we asked for..." and then started talking to Piervittorio in frantic and staccato Italian. As you can imagine, I was somewhat apprehensive as the only thing I could understand was Piervittorio saying, "No, no, no, no, no... yadda yadda yadda..." (I hate that we Americans do not have to learn a second language, as it would have been nice to understand what was going on... I suppose this is not the thread for a rant, but it bothers me that most of us don't know at least a second language. For my part, after studying in Europe, I've been attempting German, but of course, this doesn't happen overnight...) I believe the word I'm looking for here is... Anyway!

After a few minutes, the VP apologized and asked us to present the information as planned. Naturally, I had no idea what to expect (as the conversation in Italian was not clarified), so I let Piervittorio do most of the talking. I added in a few comments here or there regarding the capacity and operational analysis. The gentlemen asked numerous questions, and seemed genuinely satisfied with our work, so I was a bit confused. The engineer left, and the VP praised us for the amount of work we produced in such a short time frame. As it turned out, he was expecting a 2-10 page letter that gave our opinion on the Malpensa situation, not all the data and summaries we had prepared. In essence, he had misread our acceptance letter stating that we would present our data, and then follow up by writing an executive summary to provide our assessment of the situation. Anyway, he was very congratulatory about our work, and Piervittorio and I pledged to have a summary document to him by the end of the next day.

Now, Piervittorio had planned on taking advantage of the free trip and was going to take me up to his home town of Perugia, possibly even the famous Umbria Jazz Festival, which just happened to occur during our visit. He also had planned to present a proposal on behalf of our company to some Rome Airport officials on Thursday. Writing the letter sort of threw a monkey wrench into all of our plans, and since he had already scheduled to do this presentation... Well let's just say it was a good thing I came along! I fell asleep exhausted around 8:30pm on Wednesday evening -- skipping dinner, and elated that I could finally get some rest. I woke up the next morning, and discussed our plan with Piervittorio before his meeting. He brought over a page of bullet points he suggested I add to the letter, and left for his meeting. I had breakfast in the executive lounge. (Man, I love European breakfasts.) Then, I headed to the office area to work on the letter. It was a little difficult in that I had not done most of the decree research. Rather, I had simply created most of the tables, graphs, and analysis of the operations, enplanements, seats, etc. So, suddenly I found myself trying to learn about the various decrees (written in Italian!) and to gain a general understanding of the timeline. This of course was a good thing, but a little stressful to me at the time. Anyway, I worked through the day, and ended up with a seventeen page rough draft, summarizing the data in our package and providing our company's opinion. Piervittorio made it back around 4:30, so we went over what I wrote, and added a couple of paragraphs regarding some Terminal research he'd done. Then we headed back to Alitalia.

The VP was in another meeting at the time, so we were escorted to the electronic/media room just off of the President's office (between his and our colleague's corner suite). We fine-tuned a few of the sentences, and marveled at how nice it was to be so near to the top execs at a major EU airline. Our client arrived and we printed out our document so he could read it that evening. At a cursory glance, he seemed extremely satisfied, and said he would meet us again the next afternoon.

We headed out of Alitalia, and met with Piervittorio's brother Michele and his mother. They had driven down from Perugia, and Piervittorio seemed excited to be able to take them out to a fine Italian dinner. We went to a nice restaurant in Fiumicino (near the airport), and I tried to understand the conversation while soaking in the atmosphere. As usual, it was great to be "off the beaten path" and away from touristville. I love total immersion in a culture, and it was nice to observe a standard Italian evening. Pier's mother speaks no English, but his brother wasn't too bad. (I'd met him before on a previous trip he'd made to Chicago.) I guess I didn't realize how much the Italians loved seafood, as everyone ordered fish except for me. Piervittorio looked like a dolphin (or like the mermaid in the movie "Splash") as he gnawed into his platter of langostinos. Naturally, his mother admonished his eating habits, and complimented on how easily I was able to eat my pasta (unlike most Americans). I got one of my favorite Italian pasta dishes -- bucatina all'Amatriciana -- a tasty thick pasta with a spicy red sauce and thick pieces of almost bacon-like ham. The dish comes from Amatrice -- a village on the Apennines. Naturally, the wine was splendid, and we soon found ourselves immersed in the heart of a typical four-hour Italian dinner.

The next morning, Piervittorio and I met for breakfast, and then headed into Rome for a whirlwind tour of the city. The walls of Rome give you an instant taste of just how ancient the city is, and ruins are everywhere. It's fascinating and awesome to think of how ancient the Romans really are. Imagine, buildings still standing that existed over 2000 years ago. For those who've never been, it's truly hard to fathom, isn't it?! In any event, Pier took me around the city fairly quickly, and I snapped pictures like there was no tomorrow. I'm hoping I got some good shots of the Coliseum and St. Peter's -- wow St. Peter's is truly breathtaking! After flying through the city, we headed back to change, and then were off again to Alitalia. The VP greeted us warmly, and we had a nice lunch with him in his office. He had gone over the document with his team and his lawyers, and had a few changes to suggest. However, overall he seemed satisfied with what we presented. We even chatted casually about the US announcement that a KLM/BA alliance would render the US open skies agreement with Holland null and void unless Bermuda II could be re-examined at length. I'd heard the news on CNN International, and of course our client was privy to an article from the Financial Times. Though he didn't admit it, he had to be smiling about this, knowing his counterparts at KLM must be wringing their hands and hoping for the best. Piervittorio and I could barely contain the excitement in our voices as we discussed global alliances with the Executive VP of Alliances for Alitalia!

After our meeting, we headed back to the hotel to relax. Piervittorio had one of his acquaintances arrange for me to get past security at Rome-Fiumicino, so I wandered around the airport, checking out the various foreign carriers and bizarre hold rooms of Leonardo da Vinci Airport. I met up with Piervittorio around 8:30, and we headed back into Rome for another quick tour and some dinner. We ended up driving two young Americans (a neuvo-riche, 30-year old, silicone-enhanced debutante from Tennessee and her 24-year old boyfriend who had been studying language -- the only Italian word he appeared to know how to say was "Si" -- and architecture) and giving them a quick tour as well. They glommed onto Vic and I for dinner, and we ended up spending a rather boring evening with two obviously spoiled brats. Vic informed me that this is how most Italians view Americans, and if that is the case, it is a sad time we live in...

In any event, we got back to the hotel at 2:30am, just in time for me to pack and get about two hours of sleep... :-( We headed out of Rome on an A320 to Milan, and then connected through to our 767 to Chicago. I truly wished I could have stayed a few extra days in Rome; but we simply could not get a flight home even on Monday. I couldn't risk missing the meetings I had scheduled, so I went ahead and came back on Saturday. Too bad... I definitely want to go back to Rome. It's an incredible city with much to see and do. The history there precedes most of Europe, and it is clear to see how European culture evolved from the foundation set by the Romans. I look forward to visiting again!

Well, this novel should catch you up to speed on Rome anyway! Hopefully, this will happen more often!!!

GREAT TRIP REPORT. My family and I are also inlove with Italy.

Awesome report, just awesome, I really enjoyed it!!

Any time you can fly business, it ain't shabby, -- although Alitalia is a *little* shabby perhaps Aren't they still flying 747-200s trans Atlantic?

Very interesting business tidbits also. Thanks, ORD12, let's hear some more soon.

Thanks for the kind words, Richard. I wasn't sure how adding in some of the business end of things would work; but it helped convey exactly how I felt at the time.

Not sure about the 747-200's for AZ elsewhere, but it's been a while since they flew them out of ORD. Every now and again, you'll see one, but typically they stick with the 767-300.

I did notice several 747-200's leaving for the US out of MXP -- one was to JFK, but I'm not sure where the other was headed (LAX perhaps)? I know I've seen an AZ MD-11 at LAX before, and I noticed one backing out of MXP headed for SFO.

Great trip report. Makes me want to fly back to Rome right now to see what I missed. We were there for all of ONE DAY about 3 years ago and packed in as much as we could.
I noticed when we flew into Rome on Swissair, that the Alitalia plane that arrived 10 minutes after we did got their luggage first. There are benefits to flying AL.