SIENA–My first meal at the Hotel Athena last night was good, but there was really only one pasta dish: spinach-filled ravioli with a wonderful cheese-cream sauce. Could it be that the more upscale the restaurant, the less likely it is that you will find a variety of pasta dishes? If that’s true, then I will…
You know by now that I’m a big fan of VIA Rail in Canada. I’ve racked up a lot of miles with them and every trip has been worth taking. The big draw, of course, is their famous train, the Canadian, the transcontinental beauty operating between Toronto and Vancouver. (I’ll be making that trip again…
Enlightened managers of successful companies know that their employees make the difference between success and failure. That’s certainly true of Amtrak. Finding a good attendant assigned to your sleeping car is pretty much the norm these days … and the dining car staffs, too. If things do go wrong, it’s almost always because a crew…
A week or so ago, I wrote about some of the crazy things that happen to Amtrak car attendants. In fact, when I travel on Amtrak, I usually make it a practice to chat with those folks and, believe me, they all have stories. For instance, I was once told about a honeymoon couple boarding…