Introduction

The weather in Basel is lovely today. We’re in that brief and precious period before the onset of summer, when the light is very bright and the sky is not obscured by heat haze yet.

Getting to the Airport

It’s just too bad that I won’t really get to enjoy the lovely weather. At 15h25 I cross the square to the railway station. My intention is to catch the 15h33 TGV from Paris that continues to Zürich. Only, when it arrives, the train is absolutely packed, so that eventually, I give up and take the 15h43 instead, which takes twenty minutes longer and calls in Liestal, Sissach, Aarau, and Lenzburg on the way. But at least I’ll have a place to sit.

In Zürich I change trains to the 17h03 to the airport, which arrives at 17h12. That will give me 90 minutes before my departure to Rome.

Check-In

I’ve checked in on the app, which works well. I enter my passport data, although I’m not sure what for – because they’ll still want to check the document again at the gate.

Today is a very big day for small Switzerland, and a busy one for Zürich airport. It’s the end of the Bürgenstock summit, so there’s quite a lot of additional government traffic. Let’s hope there are no delays.

The Swissport Aspire Lounge

ITA Airways uses the Swissport Aspire Lounge in Zürich, which is the nicer one of the two non-Star Alliance Schengen lounges at Zürich airport. The other is the Merhaba lounge, which is a complete stinker of a lounge and very small.

Just as I come up the stairs, I hear the receptionist tell one of the passengers ahead of me in the queue that the lounge is currently full, with a waiting time of 45 minutes to enter.

I take that as a sign from above. So I head two floors down again and then step outside onto the Sportsbar’s lovely terrace.

I order myself a Rivella Blau, which is a typically Swiss soda made of milk serum and that is only available in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

At 18h05, flightradar24 shows my flight as having landed and on its way to the gate. So I do the same and slowly make my way to gate A 72.

Boarding

Originally, the flight is scheduled to depart at 18h45. However, at around the same time the inbound from Rome arrives in Zürich, four military helicopters approach the airfield from the West, and all departures are temporarily halted. As it turns out, a short while later I see the Ukrainian State A 320 taxiing out for a departure on runway 32, escorted by a convoy of military tanks on either side. Safe travels, Mr Zelensky!

The hold up with departures leads to an interesting situation on the ground, because there are no more vacant stands. There are ten aircraft that have just landed, waiting for a stand to become free – including my flight from Rome and, a short while later, Air India’s inaugural of its new trice-weekly Delhi to Zürich service.

Eventually, the inbound from Rome is kept waiting on the ground for an hour, until a new stand becomes available at gate A 75. The aircraft pulls onto its stand at 18h55, ten minutes after the flight to Rome should have left.

There’s a further hold up when the ground crew accidentally make some mistake, and the containers they just offloaded from the inbound go shooting off the back of the high-loader. No wonder! One of the rampers is a young guy and a newbie who obviously thinks he’s hot shit. I think he’s trying to establish traffic cone throwing as a new Olympic sport. It’s just unfortunate he’s doing it next to a very expensive aircraft – and his aim is dreadful. Who on earth hires these people?

Boarding starts at 19h20.

The Cabin & Seat

I’m seated on 1A. This is obviously an old Alitalia bird, judging by the faux wood bulkhead design. There are five rows of Business Class seating.

The pitch on row 1 is good enough for a short flight of seventy minutes.

We finish boarding at 19h45. However, the crew informs us that we’re going to have to wait at least another thirty minutes to start our engines.

The Crew & Service

There are no drinks or towels before departure. And once the delay is announced, the crew vanish into the galley and stay there. However, they redeem themselves during the flight once the dinner service starts. They’re actually really friendly and attentive.

We take off in a northerly direction on runway 32. We then make a left turn to point us in the general direction of the Alps and Italy beyond.

The Meal

The meal takes a while to be served. And when they start the service, it’s from the back to the front row. It’s only once they reach row 1 that I realise what took them so long. They’re actually doing a full tray service with a hot meal on a flight of only 70 minutes!

The presentation of the tray looks great.

The starter is grilled vegetables with mozzarella. This is served with an olive oil and balsamico dressing and focaccia from the breadbasket.

The main dish is pasta in a creamy vegetable sauce.

And for dessert, there’s a kind of tiramisu. The meal is excellent and everything tastes very good.

I really must say, I was definitely not expecting such an extensive meal on such a short flight. I’m also impressed by the quality of the food.

The meal terminates with the crew handing out small dark chocolate biscuits.

Arrival in Rome

Just as I finish my coffee, our aircraft dips its nose and we start our descent into Rome. It’s a lovely evening, and the descent is very poetic, with the sun sitting low over the Mediterranean. We land in a southerly direction and then make the long taxi to our parking stand on the A gates.

The naming of the gates in Rome is rather strange. Basically, all the piers in the Schengen area are numbered A1 to A86. Everything that is non-Schengen departs from the E gates, which also comprises several piers.