Plane left gate essentially on time but left the ground about 20 min late. Considering my 80minute layover in Rome, I'm only slightly concerned. Only just over an hour into the flight and already drinks and a snack of pugliese taralli has been served. There's something to be said about flying on the airline from your destination country, because your vacation has essentially already begun by the time you leave the ground.
Sitting next to a lovely older couple from Sacramento who are going to Rome and Italy for the first time. They are taking a Rick Steves tour and are just the blue-book-toting American tourists that can be both endearing and obnoxious at the same time.
And I love how you can tell who the Italians are on the flight because they're the well-dressed ones.
11:10am Europe time, approximately over Manchester England - after a bizarre dinner of pasta and couscous and bread and cheesecake (I dare you to find a culture that does carbs on carbs on carbs on carbs better than Italy), I attempted to sleep multiple times. Of course I was about asleep when the lady next to me asked to get out to go to the bathroom. After which the poor thing fainted or something by the bathroom. She's fine thank goodness and the flight attendants were really great with her. But no sleep for me. Ended up hopefully cobbling together a couple hours.
Now the goal is to stay awake. We still have not picked up any time, so it looks for about an on time arrival and fingers crossed for the connecting flight. At least I do not have my luggage to worry about. Because I was able to print my boarding pass before the flight, I did not have to check in at a desk, which meant no one could tell me I couldn't bring on my suitcase. Hurrah! Checked bags be damned!
Something that will hopefully be fun for this trip is that I just bought a little fitbit, an activity monitor that tracks your steps. So I will see how much I walk every day, which should be quite interesting. I will post my daily step/mile count in my daily posts, since I am sure all of you (yes, all three of you or so) is just dying to know this information.
I also realized that my first four stops on this trip (Venice, Padova - for a day, Verona, and Mantova) are all important Shakespeare cities. Cool.
2:25pm - sitting on plane to Venice. Although the flight into Rome parked in the middle of nowhere and we had to take a bus to the terminal (can you imagine Americans at major us airports putting up with that? I cannot.), passport control was a breeze, and made it to the gate for the Venice flight with time to spare. Phew! And even made it on with my luggage. Double yay!
It's amazing how culture seeps so deeply into society. The Italians' refusal to queue is present at the airport when 10 min before boarding there is a "line" to board. And forget the concept of boarding by row numbers, that simply doesn't exist in Italy and as foreign as that concept is to us I freaking love it. It's Italy, it's just how it is here and how it should be.
I'd say this flight is at least half American. O mio dio.
So, one more hour (45 mins flight time to be exact) and I'll be back where the obsession began that fateful late august in 2007.
3:25pm - snacks and drinks even on a 45-minute flight. Ah, international travel. I think the fasten seat belt sign was turned off for less than ten min. A flight so short almost seems silly.
4:15pm - sitting on bus in part one of two of the transport adventure to actually get to Venice from the airport. Cloudy and humid here in the 60s. Each time I am able to come off a plane with all my luggage and not have to worry about waiting for my bag and hoping it made it onto my plane is a dream come true and I feel truly sorry for people unwilling to pack light enough to be able to carry on only.
Found the public transport desk and bought my bus ticket as well as my 72-hour boat pass, which will last me my whole time here. My credit card transaction went through, which is always a relief. I asked for the ticket in Italian and the clerk responded in English :( I tried!
9:45pm - have absolutely no clue how I am still awake. Managed to grab a front boat seat on the #1 vaporetto to get to the B&B, which was awesome. I honestly don't know how it's possible a place this beautiful even exists. And yet signs of its literal crumbling are everywhere.
Got off at the San Silvestro stop and, using the written directions from the B&B and two maps it took me a solid 10 min to find the B&B, and of course at that time it started to rain. Anyway, the B&B is stupidly adorable. While I was checking in, the owner hugged me once but not twice and said that this is her home and while you are a guest here, it is your home too. She seemed genuinely happy that I not only shunned American coffee but also that I actually owned a moka pot. This is why i love this country and these people. I mean, are you serious?
Anyway, went out to wander a bit more to try to stay awake than anything, but did a lot of camera experimenting (the Flickr app is being a bitch so, not sure when they'll get uploaded). Luckily the rain had stopped by then. The location of the B&B is great. Tried to find a place on my list for dinner in Cannaregio and could not, so I came back and down the street from my B&B is Campo San Polo, which has a place in it where I went last time and had a good meal so I just went back since I was too tired to do anything else. Had a delicious homemade bigoli pasta (very thick spaghetti traditional to the region) with a tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella. But once again I attempted to speak Italian and got replied to in English. Really?
And I think that is really more than enough for today (technically almost two I suppose)! Pictures as soon as Flickr cooperates.
1 comment:
I love the line "checked bags be damned!"
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