Palmabella's Passions

We were up at 5:30, and in the car (with no coffee) by 6:25. The first problem was that the electronic gate in the parking area of Villa Barone would NOT open. No staff came to work until 7:00. We needed to leave by 6:30 to allow enough time to get to the Rome airport. Brad angrily managed to manually open another gate which then required him to do some difficult backing out of the parking area, turn around in an impossibly tight spot, and literally drive across the breakfast room terrace area to get out. THAT wasted 15 minutes and raised both our blood pressure, as we had asked the day before about our early departure!

Brad made up the time, and there was little traffic on a Saturday at that early hour, so he drove VERY fast through the Chianti hills, while I silently tried not to get carsick, and prayed for an Autogrill on the Autostrada where I could down a cappucino or two! When we were an hour from Rome, we had a 10 minute stop with a bathroom break, and a most delicious coffee and a Coke Light.

Brad dropped me off with all the luggage, and returned the rental car. That took 20 minutes, and gave me a chance for my last smoke. When he returned, we got into THIS line at Delta:

That line didn't move for over an hour. We boarded 30 minutes late, then sat on the runway for an hour and a half. I slept through most of that and missed takeoff. We landed two hours late in Atlanta, but still had 2 hours and 15 minutes before our flight to Ontario. We were hopeful. We lost the 15 minutes when there was another plane at our assigned gate. Luggage took over an hour to come out. Our Ontario flight left before we even went through customs. Everyone's connection left, so we joined the line of 200 grumpy people who needed to be re-ticketed. Delta was NOT on top of things.

We had landed at 6:30 p.m.. At 11:45, we had new ticket's on tomorrow's first flight to Ontario, two $7 vouchers for "dinner" (although most of the airport restaurants had closed), and a hotel voucher for "Country Inn". We had a choice of Wendy's or a sandwich place. Two sandwiches, a coke and a coffee put us over our limit. We arrived at our hotel at 1:15 a.m. for 4 hour nap before returning to the airport at 6:30 a.m.. At least we had a shower.

Our flight to Ontario was uneventful, and I napped some more. I got all our luggage, while Brad picked up the rental car, and we arrived at home early in the afternoon. Ego was very glad to see us, and the housesitter left everything clean. We tried to stay awake, but took a nap that lasted three hours, then went to bed for the night at 11:00. THIS is the hard part of travel. But every hour spent in Bella Italia is worth it. We forget this part. We remember every lovely hour in Italy!