I'm sitting here at our apartment in Rome (yes, we made it!) and it is 6:14 am. I thought it had just started raining but I looked outside and it was the street cleaner. So yes, they clean the streets in Rome, which is a lucky thing with all the people milling about. And we do have wifi which is how I'm able to post this in such a timely fashion.
Our flight from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia was on time and uneventful, but our flight from Philadelphia to Rome was something to write home about. We left on time and were about an hour into our flight -- they were serving dinner and I was watching "Chef" on my personal movie screen -- when the Captain announced that one of our passengers had a "medical emergency" and, after conferring with their medical team in Arizona (the remnants of America West), they decided the best thing to do was to turn around and head back to Philadelphia. This must be a joke, right?
No. The Captain further explained that because our jet hadn't used up much of its fuel, it would be unusually heavy for landing and that we would require an extra long runway at the west field, but that there would be a fire crew and emergency equipment on hand since the hard braking would be particularly hard on the tires. After that, the plane's tire and landing gear would have to be inspected to make sure they had not suffered any damage. However, he said, the weather in Philadelphia was clear and absolutely beautiful.
So stewardesses packed up their dinner carts (we hadn't yet been served) and we started the hour and a half flight back to Philly, putting down the landing gear early to create drag and burn more fuel (at the end we were really creeping along). Fernando and I were thinking: oh oh, this is a repeat of our flight to Paris when Delta canceled our nonstop flight and all the passengers had to make a mad scramble to get alternate flights, the soonest being the following day.
Fortunately the plane landed perfectly (I personally think that US Airways pilots are the very best), the plane passed inspection, the passenger must have been carried off (we didn't see him/her -- Fernando thinks he/she was first class), and by 11 pm we were on our way again. The upside to this episode is that we actually talked to the other passengers while we were waiting inspection (the couple behind us were Mexicans from Austin) and that, when we were finally served dinner, at midnight, it tasted awfully good.
We arrived in Rome 4 hours late and as our seats were over the wing, we couldn't see any of the countryside during landing. But the sky was blue, except for some curious low level cumulus clouds on the eastern horizon, and the weather balmy, except that the Italians still had jackets on. We found the ATM and our driver and headed into Rome.
Most of the streets in Rome are unmarked so I'm wondering how easy it will be wandering through them. Even the driver had to think when I asked him what was the name of one of the major street we were taking. But I was able to pick out some of the monuments (the forum) and buildings (Saint Peter Outside the Walls, the Vittoriano) as we drove past them. Although it was November, there were still tourists with T-shirts and cameras walking around the city center.
Andrea was at the apartment when we got there and carried our bags up the stairs to the tiny elevator. We went up the elevator with the bags while he ran up the circular stairs to the 2nd floor (the third floor to us). The apartment is quite spacious, in a U-shape around the interior staircase. The door to their (Andrea and his mother) apartment is opposite ours. At one end of the U is the double-bed bedroom, then the living room, the dining room, then the entrance foyer and on the other half of the U: a hallway from which open the small kitchen, a laundry room with toilet, the bathroom, and at the other end of the U the bedroom with twin beds. The second bedroom is rather dark because the shutters to the interior courtyard are closed and I can't figure out how to open them (I'll have to ask Andrea) but it is very close to the bathroom. Fernando is already complaining how far away the bathroom is from the double bedroom.
After taking a shower, we headed out to the SMA grocery store down by Santa Maria Maggiore that I had previously located on my Google map excursions. First we stopped at the UPIM department store next door (it's like Kohl's) and picked up some pencils for Isabel. Then we went grocery shopping, trying to buy everything Italian (grapes, clementines, cipollino onions, garlic, tomatoes, veal, olives), as well as those Colombian stables: coffee and bananas. Fernando even picked up some head cheese and I got some pane di Lariano and pecorino romano. And of course vino: a novello rosso, Fior di Novembre 2014, which wasn't bad - slightly prickly on the tongue. Then we wandered home and cooked dinner.
We were pooped (I had slept only about 1 hour on the flight) but we didn't want to go to bed too early. So we went out for a nightcap: pistaccio and nocciolo gelato. I can see us doing that every night, just so we can try all the different gelaterias and gusti.
