This trip is basically a continuation of the friends-and-family swoop we finished in January. Now we are traveling much bigger distances between stops. But the general idea is the same: the destinations are people-based and the views along the way are a nice backdrop. It does seem a little crazy but we have been meaning to go to Rome for almost three years, trying to visit friends who have been posted there with the State Department. Time was running out.
There was nothing remarkable about our air travel between Virginia and Rome except that we changed planes in Lisbon. Never been there, and have never heard Portuguese spoken (and then clearly translated right after, since it was all the flight crew telling us everything in both languages). What an unusual language. Not one of those that you can just pick out the parts you understand. The planes were very full and the seats were cramped and there was a lot of turbulence. But there were no bad surprises and we got to make some quick observations about the airport in Lisbon (so many planes just sitting out, sprinkled around, and no need to have a gate with a jetway because it seems that the weather is consistent enough that they can just unload the plane anywhere and then put you on a bus, like it used to be in Hawaii before they get all fancy). The airport was functional, not too high tone except for the area with all the stores selling stuff that we would never want. But I do understand why Rebecca likes airports so much -- they are contained areas with lots of comforts, plenty of food, nothing that has to happen except waiting for the next plane.
We got to Rome at about 4:00 local time and had to figure out the train system. We did not buy the wrong tickets, we did not get on the wrong train, we did not have to run, we did not end up in the wrong town. Everything went just fine, despite Jon's inevitable fretting as soon as he had bought the tickets. But there was a nice customer care person in exactly the right place and all of our connections were smooth. And it is easy to be in a country where tourists are expected and everything is translated into English -- and Italian makes a lot more sense than Portuguese anyway.
My sweet cousin Helen was waiting at the station in Lucca and she drove us the mile to her apartment, admonishing us that we are now plenty old and we should stop buying the cheap tickets and just get a direct flight. Jon is so unlikely to ever do that... but he did say on the train that this trip we are going to get whatever we want without spending a lot of time thinking about the price. That sounds good to me. He doesn't mean that he won't look for the better deal on a sandwich but he won't skip the sandwich altogether because it costs money.
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| When you use a picture from BeReal, you get more than you want in the corner. |
Helen had some delicious lentil soup ready for us and a nice loaf of bread. Tomorrow we will start to be in Italy for real. Right now we are at my cousin's apartment and it is so comfortable (I looked in all the drawers and it feels like home to me except that everything comes in smaller packages). The ceilings are certainly over ten feet up and the windows are about seven feet tall, with wooden shutters on the inside. It's nothing like Virginia, actually.
Three weeks ago we would not have predicted that we would actually be able to make this trip, but Jon's health has stabilized and improved enough that there was no question by the time it was time to pack yesterday. He can do it all. We purposely packed very lightly so that we can walk some distances with our bags, and Jon is setting a good pace.
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