So we left Malta bright and early with great plans to use our hotel as a base and head into Roma for one more day…. Alas… plans have a way of changing….
We got to Roma no problem… However, Jerry luggage strap was inexplicably gone. Mine had also been removed and put back on… frustrating, cuz those straps help us differentiate our luggage from all the other millions of pieces of the same. BUT WAIT… why am I complaining, our luggage arrived with us so that was good!
Our hotel was adjacent to the airport after about a 20 minute walk through a maze of confusing instructions. Can we say two travelers getting a bit short with each other and there names are Jerry and Jean…? To top it off, Jean’s throat is feeling like she swallowed, rather tried to swallow a whole tomatoe! We checked in to the hotel finally, using points we’ve earned and got on the Executive level, No Smoking… thought, score! Well, our wing was none smoking, but the other three, not the case. Hallway was stinky, but the at least our room was clean albeit sterile. By now, Jean is not a happy camper, is trying to get ready to take off for the city and, I’m not proud, but I had a meltdown. End result… we stay in the hotel, reading, sleeping, listening to endless CNN broadcasts in the background…This hotel is nice cuz it’s adjacent to the airport, but nothing else is close by other than the train station and runways; they did have a restaurant and of course, the executive lounge… where we could have all the free booze we wanted, but at this point.. we didn’t want any…
Anyway, woke up this morning, had a quick bite and finally something was going well in the directions area. The hotel would provide a shuttle for us to get to Terminal 5, which is NOT accessible from the airport by foot. Thanks God for that blessing. Once in the terminal, again, the Italian directions got weird… check in one area… they just look at the passport, ask you questions, mark your carry-ons. So, while the girl is asking the questions, the person tagging your carry on is asking questions, and then the first one gets mad cuz your not answering hers…. Grrrrrrrrrrr big time!
Make it through there, weave your wave to the check in… again… unique signage… Got to our check in counter where we will give them our luggage : A nice, wonderful agent… and I mean that… was a good thing. Then off to security.
So first you find the exit, done, look up to locate the security entrance, done… or so we thought… several of us head out that was… no, it’s for staff and impaired… Looking to the left, this place has nothing on DISNEYLAND and the way they snake the lines to get folks in only thing… there were no folks… pretty empty.. So we back out of the staff line, and look for the entrance to the ‘real’ line. Start to walk in, and an Italian agent says, no… go straight and to the right… back out and do as he said, and where it says entrance, is blocked off. Now… there is a huge white wall in front of us, but with about a 6 foot opening… aha… that is where we go…. ALAS… we go through and passed muster! HALLELUJAH!
Now, we sit at the gate, me sneezing, throat hurting, Jerry coughing (and has been for about 10 days, but it does seem better) waiting to board. We heard the plane has lay down seats… looking forward to that! And, looking forward to seeing our home, family, friends and of course, Oliver.
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