Change Number 1!
Talk about a really long day…we were up on Friday at 5 am and were ready to leave by the time Uber Jason arrived at our house at 8 am. To the Tucson Airport by 9, and a short wait for our plane to LAX. Having TSA-Precheck is wonderful – your shoes, liquids, belt and computers can stay comfortably packed in your bag!
We arrived at LAX about 10 minutes late, but our luggage came out quickly and we were on the curb looking for the Abus for airline connections, which also came quite soon. We were transported to the Bradley International Terminal, and found the Norwegian Airlines check-in counters fairly easily. Nice people there, and we were checked in and on our way! The Bradley International terminal is really quite nice, and as it was lunch time we decided to find some lunch. Many restaurants to choose from, and I had a lovely apple/bacon/chicken salad and Rhad a Emmenthal and prosciutto with Dijon mustard and apple slice grilled sandwich, which he said was delicious. For dessert, R had a spicy carrot cupcake and I had a Fleur de Sel chocolate cupcake. (Figured if this was our last American food…)
Down to Gate 140, which was a transit gate, that opened just a few minutes late. We were in boarding group C, which was about in the middle, and out into buses and then a very long drive to the other side of the airport where our the 787-Dreamliner that was to be our home for the next 12 hours was parked. We were very, very lucky – we had bulkhead exit row seats in the first row of economy, and ended up – seriously, having the only vacant seat on the entire airplane between us, as Rwas in 6A and I was in 6C!
L-O-N-G flight (11½ hours), and as this was our first time on Norwegian, it was rather interesting. You don’t have to buy any meals at all – and then they have a “snack bar” that is open the entire flight, where you can buy wine, beer, pop and food all flight long! As it turns out, I had brought my own headphones, but R doesn’t have any … so we did have to spend $3.00 to get him a set, which came in a very nice and convenient container!
We have had several friends (Jay, Tommy, Bob & Stew) fly Norwegian prior to us, and we would give it mixed reviews. The food – R’s chicken and my beef, was excellent. The entertainment was good – I binge watched at least 12 episodes of Big Bang Theory, as well as a few other movies – but at 11½ hours, the flight did get a bit tedious. Not too bumpy, but my real complaint was with the bathrooms! Seriously, the filthiest bathrooms I have ever, ever seen in a lifetime of international flying. Half-way through the flight, one of the bathrooms ran completely out of T.P. … an extra roll appeared a couple of hours later, but seriously folks, it shouldn’t be that difficult! Fortunately, having numerous allergies, I always carry prodigious packages of Kleenex, so we were covered, regardless.
Arrived about 2:30 pm and headed to customs and immigration … where we spent most of the rest of the day! Seriously … not since Istanbul Ataturk Airport did we ever meet with such chaos!!! It took us, literally, over 1½ hours to get from the start of the line through to clearance! It was like a Disneyland line gone MAD – so, so many people trying to crowd through barricades of ever decreasing size – at the same time as our full 787, came a full flight from Toronto, as well as at least one flight from Ural Airlines… lots of Russians in line with us!
By the time we got through processing, our flight was no longer listed on the baggage boards – so there began the hunt for our stuff. I was seriously worried about our luggage, which had probably been there for over an hour. However, I found one of our bags off-loaded next to one of the carosels, and then Rspotted our second bag and voila – unlike the last time we landed in Rome – both of our bags were there at the same time!!! (Last time, the second bag arrived about 8 hours later…it had been having a brief visit to Frankfurt…)
Once we were out of customs and baggage, we then went to the car rental location. Here, we were number 36 in line, and they were serving number 32. Took about half an hour and then we were finally able to actually leave the airport in a wonderful Opel, which drives just beautifully! (It’s a diesel though, so I hope we don’t have problem refilling it!)
Our original plan had been to pick up the car and then head straight east across Rome, and into the mountains. There are some wonderful Samnian sites that we really wanted to see. However, rather than exciting around 3 pm, instead, it was closer to 6 pm, so we decided to change our plans.
We had planned on overnighting in eastern Italy, and returning back to the airport on Sunday night for our flight to Malta on Monday morning. Instead, Rcalled the Hilton Garden Inn near the airport, and was able to move our check-in to tonight, for a two-night stay. Turns out the hotel is probably less than 10 minutes from the airport – although I do have to admit that between Emmy (our GPS) gaining satellites and R locating the hotel on it, we were rather longer getting here. Finally made it to check-in, and are comfortably ensconced in room 636 (top floor). SOOOOOO happy to finally get in the room! Unpacked a bit, and we both jumped into the shower – time to get all that “travel schmutz” washed off! R connected up the computer, as he has Caltech business that he needs to do, and then – washed and in clean(er) clothes, out we went to find dinner.
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| First glass of wine! Excellent! |
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| Great family place! |
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| Only one word: WOW! |
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One of the best TripAdvisor recommendations was for an Enoteca in Fiumicino, that sounded like fun. I’m not sure how Robert manages to find the places that he does, but even without a firm check-point, we were able to get there very quickly! The Enoteca was fabulous! First of all, it was very much a family place. Lots of little kids playing out front, and parents with their kids coming in to add to the fun! I think we were probably the first ones there, and the owner recommended an excellent Abruzzo white wine – it was fabulous! Then came the highlight of the evening – a cheese and meat board – some wonderful aged pecorino (with honey!) and some newer pecorino; two types of Tuscan salami and prosciutto, as well as local prosciutto and some very new buffalo mozzarella. (That was about the only thing that we didn’t finish!) Just an incredible meal – “tapas” style – my favorite! And all for 50€! Wow! A really great “first” meal in Italy!
Finished about 9 pm and quickly back to the hotel. We’ve decided (I think) that we will content ourselves to some local sites tomorrow – Ostia Antica, where we have been many times, as well as Isola Sacra, where we have never visited. And possibly the lovely town of Frascati! We’ll see!
But the best news is that we’re safely here --- and clean! Who could ask for more!
Lots of love!
m
xxx
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