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Here is the Timeline that the folks over in the TWoP Amazing Race forums have put together for this first leg of the race. Many people have contributed to this collection of information, which differs from my normal summaries. This timeline includes links to websites with additional information about things such as temperature, sites, and events.
If you have anything to add, let me know in the comments, and I’ll get this timeline updated.
Without further ado…. Now that we’re almost a full week past the first episode, I thought I would try to pull together the core details of When, Where, What and How that we’ve hashed out over the last six days. It’s not complete, it’s likely wrong in spots, and I’m prepared to edit it plenty until we have a pretty good consensus on what we think happened.
Day 1 [possibly Monday, January 20 -- see footnote]: Race Begins at Dodger Stadium, LA. (time)– Teams are given $200 to complete this leg of the race. Teams travel to LAX via the Stadium Way exit to the 110 Freeway (most) or Sunset Blvd to the 110 Freeway (David/Jeff). All park at ParkOne lot at LAX per Clue #1.
The following teams took the following approaches to getting on the different flights: (1) Jon/Al head for SwissAir (1st SA pair) (2) Russell/Cindy head straight for Lufthansa (1st pair L); they call over Millie/Chuck (2nd L pair) and Amanda/Chris (3rd L pair) (3) Kelly/Jon head for SwissAir (2nd SA pair) (4) Josh/Steve head for SwissAir (3rd SA pair) (5) Steve/Dave head for SwissAir; they are in line behind Monica/Sheree and Reichen/Chip, but Josh/Steve buy their tickets so they end up with the 4th pair SA. (6) David/Jeff briefly head for Lufthansa, find out that the tickets will all be sold, and go to KLM (1st KLM pair) (7) Reichen/Chip try for Lufthansa first; they talk to a different agent than the others to “put their name in”, but the “main agent” has already sold 3 pairs. Then, they go to SwissAir and are waiting in line, but the 4 pairs get sold first. Thus, they end up at KLM. (8) Monica/Sheree head for SwissAir, Josh/Steve facilitate Steve/Dave getting SA Pair #4 instead of Monica/Sheree, so they end up on KLM. (9) Debra/Steve stop by Lufthansa, are told that there are no more tickets, say that they are going to SwissAir, and end up on KLM. (10) Tian/Jaree are shown to be on KLM.
Therefore, teams travel on one of three flights for Milan: SwissAir through Zurich, leaving at 2:55 pm (Kelly/Jon, Steve/Dave, Josh/Steve, Jon/Al), Lufthansa through Frankfurt, leaving at 2:55 (Amanda/Chris, Millie/Chuck, Russell/Cindy), or KLM through Amsterdam, leaving at 3:50 (Reichen/Chip, David/Jeff, Monica/Sheree, Tian/Jaree, Debra/Steve).
Teams arrive in Milan in the afternoon of Day 2 (and it’s cold !), beginning with Kelly/Jon at 1:40. Most teams travel to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele via taxi, although Reichen/Chip and David/Jeff do so via train. Once there, teams get Clue #2 and get tickets to the 2 am, 4 am, or 6 am bus to Destination Unknown. In general, teams get tickets to the earliest-available bus in the order in which they arrive at the Galleria except that: (1) Cindy/Russell and Jon/Al take 4 am tickets when 2 sets of 2 am tickets remain available (to the benefit of Josh/Steve and Steve/Dave) (2) Debra/Steve take tickets to the 6 am bus when 1 set of 4 am tickets remain available (to the benefit of Monica/Sheree, as helped by Josh/Steve).
For the “night” of Day 2 becoming Day 3, we see some teams take up temporary residence at Hotel Nuovo (near bottom of list) (Tian/Jaree, Kelly/Jon, Monica/Sheree, David/Jeff, Reichen/Chip — who share their room with Debra/Steve). We see Russell/Cindy staying in a park.
On Day 3, teams travel from Piazza Fontina (top left corner of link) to Cortina D’Ampezzo via charter bus at 2 am (Millie/Chuck, Amanda/Chris, Josh/Steve, and Steve/Dave), 4 am (Kelly/Jon, Jon/Al, Russell/Cindy, Monica/Sheree), and 6 am (Reichen/Chip, David/Jeff, Tian/Jaree, Debra/Steve). The distance between the two cities is approximately 238 miles.
The 2 am crew arrive at Cortina D’Ampezzo at about 9 am. Those 4 teams travel by shuttle bus to Cinque Torri, home of Clue #3 where they all complete “Rescue” of the “Search/Rescue” Roadblock. The 4 am crew arrive at Cortina D’Ampezzo at about 11 am (?). 3 of the 4 teams travel by taxi to Cinque Torri, where they all complete “Rescue”. The fourth, Monica/Sheree travel by taxi in pursuit of the Fast Forward (where?). The 6 am crew arrive at Cortina D’Ampezzo at about 1 pm (?). All 4 teams travel by taxi to Cinque Torri, where they all complete “Rescue”.
Except for Monica/Sheree, each team gets Clue #4 upon completion of the Roadblock, directing them to the Pit Stop at the Hotel Lajadira, in Cortina D’Ampezzo.
The teams arrive on Day 3 in the following order and at the following times
1) 11:52 am — (tie) Millie/Chuck, Josh/Steve, Amanda/Chris (2 hours, 52 minutes to complete the Roadblock)
4) 12:49 pm — (Fast Forward) Monica/Sheree (1 hr, 49 min to complete the FF)
5) 1:05 pm — Steve/Dave (4 hrs, 5 min)
6) 1:16 pm — Kelly/Jon (2 hrs, 16 min)
7) 1:22 pm — Jon/Al (2 hrs, 22 min) 
1:44 pm — Russell/Cindy (2 hrs, 44 min)
9) 2:29 pm — Reichen/Chip (1 hr, 29 min)
10) 3:08 pm — David/Jeff (2 hrs, 8 min)
11) 3:43 pm — Tian/Jaree (2 hrs, 43 min)
12) ?? pm — (eliminated) Debra/Steve
Note: Assumption made that race began January 20 based on spoilers pre-race. We know that the charter bus tickets picked up at the Galleria say “January 20″ on them, but it is assumed that those are printing dates vs. travel dates. On the other hand, it is quite possible that that is in fact the travel date and the race started on Saturday, January 18. Hopefully future date information will be shown that will solidify in one direction or the other.
Edited to add Rabrab’s distances from Milan to Cortina D’Ampezzo, change the Dodger Stadium to LAX descriptions based on keram’s posts, add a bunch of Enrico’s links, medievalboy’s Piazza Fontina post, and toonces’s weather link (but I changed it to Jan 23rd)
Edited to change the wording on the dates involved based on FellowTraveler ’s post, add theschnauzers suggestion on the $$ given for the leg, and add Enrico ’s arrival times and times required to complete the Roadblock. Also added some other teams that stayed at Hotel Nuovo.
