Somewhere along the beginning of our journey we have the benefit of 'absorbing' the 6 hour time change into our daily routine. It is actually a bit more unusual here, as we landed in Lisbon with a 5 hour change and then on to Milan for an additional hour. To round things off, we summarized this as follows.......left Boston at 6:00 PM (which was midnight in Milan) then landed in Lisbon at 6:00 AM, which was really midnight for us! Somewhere over the Atlantic, Sunday started for us. While the earth manages a very precise rhythm of diurnal and nocturnal patterns, our daily experience varies by where we manage to place ourselves within this spinning 24 hour cycle. It is amazing how goofed up we can get when we make adjustments! For Sunday, our bodies will try to make the shift to Italian time and absorb the 6 hour time difference.
Breakfast and sunrise over Lisbon!
I am not sure we expected the mobile stairs to the tarmac for our arrival. We ended up in a remote plane 'parking lot' at least a half mile from the terminal. I guess the Lisbon airport needs to expand! We deplaned and got on a shuttle bus.......nice pink railings!
We lucked out and were on the first shuttle bus and were able to walk right up to passport control with no one in front of us! I guess it helped that it was only 6:30 in the morning! We got to the concourse with plenty of time to spare. We only had a 90 minute layover scheduled and were worried about getting stuck in the passport line........but it all worked out and we hung out in the food court and grabbed a coffee while waiting for our gate to be posted.
and then another bus ride out to a distant jet parking field.......this time with yellow rails!
The flight to Milan was pretty crowded also, particularly for a Sunday morning. It was a fairly basic plane where the first three rows had about 6" of additional space as an upgrade, along with another breakfast service just like the last one. The best part here is that we reserved the aisle and window seat.......and lucked out with no one between us!
The flight was 2 hours and 20 minutes and had a wonderful route over two sets of alpine mountains. The first were the Pyrenees near Andorra in Spain and the second over the French Alps a bit south of Grenoble......totally awe inspiring......and too many photos but the views were amazing!
Landing in Milan, believe it or not.......never happened before.......our two big bags were the first on the conveyor belt! We were out of there in a jiffy and headed over to Hertz to grab our rental car. It ended up being a fun Jeep Avenger 5-speed stick shift! We were lucky to find a Hertz assistant to help us change the controls to English! They were actually in Portuguese!
Arriving at Relais Villa d'Amelia!
We are staying for two nights in the Langhe region of northwest Italy, about a two hour drive from Milan. It is in the heart of the Italian red wine region and has a beautiful rolling (almost mountainous) landscape. Villa d'Amelia will be our home base for a couple of days and is one of our favorites (3rd time there!).
In the heart of Italy's Piedmont region lie two illustrious wine appellations, Barolo and Barbaresco, which stand as veritable monuments to the art of winemaking. These appellations, renowned for their production of red wines crafted exclusively from the Nebbiolo grape, have become synonymous with elegance, complexity, and age-worthiness in the world of wine.
The Langhe are mountainous areas located south of the Tanaro River, in the heart of Piedmont. Barolo, with its unmistakable castles, and Barbaresco, with its medieval core, define a part of the landscape of northern Italy. One of the organizations working to control this entire territory is called the Consortium for the Protection of Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe and Dogliani. The strong foreign investment in recent years has made them especially vigilant against any possible intervention: "The truth is that the Langhe, as we have said many times, are like a coral reef, delicate and with their own ecosystem of knowledge, people, and peculiarities. You have to be careful when approaching and making changes not to distort the territory and everything that this implies and entails."
Room #317 with its fantastic roof terrace.
But the afternoon needed to start with a well-deserved reposa (nap!)
After the nap it was down to the pool for a wake up swim. Fortunately the pool was heated!
APERITIVI ET LA CENA
Amuse Bouche was puff pastry with beet root puree and chevre cheese.
Vitello Tonnato with arugula........incredibly delicious!
Tajarin Pasta with Sausage Ragu
Vegetable Terrine with Yogurt and grilled Naan bread
View from our table
Totally 'beyond belief' strawberry, rhubarb and meringue dessert!
and an extra Nocciolo Gelato from the waiter just to taste!
and even more at the end.......they call this a mignon piatto.......troppo zuchero!
Sun is finally setting at 9:15........time to head off to bed! This place is quite special.
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