I’m The Unluckiest --> Luckiest Person In Italy

Milan has three airports.  Orio al Serio, Malpensa, and Linate.  I have been to all three.  Last year, I flew out of Linate on Aer Lingus.  This year, I was scheduled to fly Aer Lingus again out of Linate.  Or so I thought.  For months I’ve been saying my flight was out of Linate, not a doubt in my mind.

After devouring a delicious final Italian meal at the airport with some of my favorites (penne all’ arrabiatta and a gigantic ball of soaked mozzarella), I was confused as to why they weren’t adding any more flights to the departures list.  Mine was at 9:55pm and the last one up was at 9:45pm.  I checked my itinerary.  9:55pm – Milan Malpensa.

7:55 – I finished my dinner at Linate and realized my mistake.

8:00 – I went to the bus area and found that the Linate-Malpensa buses do not run at night.  I boarded a van back to the train station that left 3 minutes later.

8:15 – I arrived at the station.  Usually this is a 30 minute drive but I was in a van, not a bus.

8:17 – I found a bus to Malpensa, but the driver told me Aer Lingus was in the farther terminal and I probably wouldn’t make it, especially since I didn’t have my boarding pass yet.  He said it would be one hour until I got to that terminal.  The driver directed me to the taxi stand (70-80 euros to Malpensa), and there were about 40 people waiting and 0 taxis.  I got on the bus as my only option.

8:40 – We hit every red light possible.  Cars in front of us don’t see when lights turn green, and apparently some cars don’t know how to merge onto a highway.

9:10 – I arrived at my Malpensa terminal.  Keep in mind this is 45 minutes in advance for an international fight.  There is an Aer Lingus staffperson but where it should say “Dublin” on the screen above her is now blank.  She checks me in anyway and says the flight is delayed.  I smiled at her and she said she was about to close anyway, I just made it. 

If I’d missed the flight, I really don’t know what would have happened.  There was no other Aer Lingus flight from Milan to Dublin before my Dublin to Chicago flight tomorrow.  And my Mom already generously booked me a hotel room in Dublin for the night. 

Now I’m at the Dublin airport (which as free wifi this month!) I’ll write a more about my last week and a wrap-uppy post soon.