Come Sunday night, it’s on the EK bird PER-xDXB-FCO to start a brief trip to Italy.
As those who regularly read the Qantas Wine latest offering thread would know, I was the winner of the Win a Trip to Italy competition back in April.
When Deirdre, the Qantas Wine rep phoned (in an unbelievably extreme state of excitement!) to tell me I’d won the trip, I couldn’t really remember much about it, but using Wayback Machine, here’s what I had seen on 13 April when I bought some wine, including some Italian, so I had three entries in the draw:
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Dare I admit to buying a dozen mixed white quaffers with the sin of there being no bonus points attached!?
Oh well, what was attached were some entries for the competition, so this little set of bonii that resulted from that will have to suffice as being even better than buying some points and getting a case of wine thrown in…:
A trip for four to Italy. The eight-night stay includes:
- Return economy class airfares for four from winner’s nearest Australian capital city to Rome (returning from Florence, Italy). Plus, all airline and airport taxes.
- One-way private transfer from Rome airport to accommodation in Rome.
- 4 nights, 4-star accommodation in Rome with breakfast included x two rooms.
- 3 in 1 Cooking Class Piazza Navona: fettuccine, ravioli and tiramisu.
- Small-group Tour of Colosseum Underground, Arena and Forum.
- One-way private transfer from Rome accommodation to Rome train station.
- One-way standard train ticket for four people from Rome train station to Florence train station.
- One-way private transfer from Florence train station to Florence accommodation.
- 4 nights, 4-star accommodation in Florence with breakfast included x two rooms.
- Guided Florence historic sights tour via golf cart.
- Guided Tuscany day trip from Florence - explore Siena and Chianti, then 3-course Tuscan lunch and wine tasting.
- One-way private transfer from Florence accommodation to Florence airport.
- AUD $4,000 spending money.
There were some restrictions: Valid for one year, no points or cash upgrades allowed
, school holidays excluded.
The latter potentially presented a problem for PJM who still toils in the education system, but she secured some long service leave.
Eerily, it pretty much mirrors a trip a CBR-based colleague and I did back in 2004 to go to a conference in Florence. He has friends in Rome, so we spent a weekend there before heading by train to Florence. About seven years prior to that, he and his wife followed the same route on their honeymoon, using a car borrowed from their friends!
So, it was a no-brainer as to who I was going to ask if they’d like to join us!
Talk about spooky action at a distance!
When I phoned my friends in CBR to ask whether they'd like an all-expenses paid trip to Italy, we all ended up ROFLOAO about the whole coincidence. So those friends are joining in after finding their own way CBR-PER on Saturday. That John and I had a lot of fun on that trip, so it will be great to retrace it with our partners. The friends in Rome have been alerted to the onslaught and have organised a day of activities.
We settled on late October as best time for all the workers (ie. all but me – err… what is wrong with those people?!
), fitting around other trips we already had planned and the chance of still reasonable weather. That put it outside the seasonal direct PER-FCO QF flights, but I figure that is no bad thing.
Being in whY, I think I would rather be on the QF codeshare on EK A380 metal PER-xDXB-FCO and return than in whY on a QF B787 for all those hours in one hit. It is a verrry long time since I've travelled long-haul in whY
– and I’ve never travelled whY on an A380
.
Am I frightened?
Hell, yeh! But I’ll try my best to hide it…
After four nights in Rome, we train to Florence, have four nights there, then fly ITA FLR-FCO, connecting back onto the EK metal FCO-xDXB-PER.
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It’s actually quite a nice experience for me to just sit back and let this all just happen, not having to organise anything! That said, though, the TA QF Wine passed the organisation over to needed detailed checking and fixing at every point… No clue about the perspective of a frequent flyer – eg. not putting in our QF FF numbers (2 WP, 2 SG, 1 NB) that I had specifically provided. Consequently, the usual situation of having EK assume we were all NB and default seat us in the nether regions of the bird.
I rescued the situation pronto, by doing it myself, getting out of row 83 and into row 46 for PER-DXB, and similar for the other EK sectors:
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Ultra scary stuff!
There were a few other anomalies like sitting me and my mate’s wife together and PJM with my mate (we’re friendly, but not that friendly…
), some occasions of incorrectly spelt names – although fortunately not in the flight bookings. Rookie error stuff. Everything needed careful checking, I tell ya…
It was a travel agency in SYD that has an arm that apparently specialises in organising prize travel. Maybe most travel prize winners have NFI…
Anyway, after a bit of toing and froing and taking charge of the flights seating situation through my EK account I soon got it locked away to my satisfaction.
They’ve plonked us into these hotels:
Rome:
Hotel Diana Rome Roof Garden | Official Site
Looks pretty reasonable.
It’s here:
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Good location.
Though I have to laugh about the private transfer from the hotel to Roma Termini for our train to Firenze! I think it will be quicker for us to just walk around the corner!
Florence:
Hotel Roma, in the centre of Florence | Hotel 4 stelle in centro a Firenze | Hotel Roma
Great location, right on Piazza Santa Maria di Novella.
It just happens to be my birthday while in Firenze, so with $4K burning a hole in my pocket, why not head out for some scraps on the Saturday night at Cantinetta Antinori (
Cantinetta Antinori Firenze), a mere 3 minutes’ walk away…
Antinori is kind of the Italian equivalent of Penfolds. I’ve walked past the resto several times in days gone by; now it’s time to hit it. I’m guessing there’s a possibility they might have something reasonable to slurp with a Bistecca alla Fiorentina...
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