Sunday,
September 16 (35 miles
total for the entire trip)
We got up at 6:30 and joined Donato for our
final breakfast. 
I laughed when he admired my inexpensive canvas carry-on bag
that I got for $20. Ironically, I ended up spilling M&M’s in the bottom of
it on the plane, which contrary to their claims will melt if crushed. When I
tried to clean it, the tag said not to machine wash or dry clean, so a month
later I pitched it.
At
10 a.m. eight of us took two cars provided by the hotel to the airport. The
price was 12 Euros per person, which seemed like a good deal. At the check-in
counter, there were guards with Uzi submachine guns watching the crowds from an
upper balcony; I would have like to have seen the Swiss Guard in their gold and
blue striped outfits instead. Even though I was nervous, the security check was
no big deal. I had to put more things in plastic bags, since they wanted
electronic items placed in one too, but I got to take less clothing off when
going through their X-ray machine.
Having learned a lesson from our flight over, I
went to stock up on food. My carry-on still had some of the bananas I had
purchased earlier. I bought Greg and I a large pizza, a sandwich, some snacks,
soda and some water from a cafeteria. If there were bags to carry things, I
didn’t see them, so I borrowed their tray to carry it back to the gate. Greg
couldn’t understand why I was buying all this food since we just ate breakfast,
but during the flight he was pretty happy that I did.
Our plane was much nicer than our previous one,
with individual TVs on the back of each seat. The 10-hour flight was long, but
with the large variety of movies and flight information that you could watch
“on demand” time seemed to go quickly. Since we were travelling during the day,
it was difficult to sleep.
Toward the end of the flight we were given a customs
form to fill out. I had nothing to declare, but I did mark on the form that I
had some bananas that I was bringing into the country. Thankfully, I mentioned
that to one of the flight attendants, when I had gotten up to stretch. She told
me to get a new form and to throw those bananas away or face a $300 fine,
because it was illegal to bring fruit into the country. No problem. Why hadn’t
they said so?
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| From the internet. |
Upon landing in Charlotte, NC, we went through
immigration. Lou had had to check her bag, since she was bringing back four
bottles of wine as gifts. She had to claim it and then send it through security
again. She was very happy that her bag was not purple and dripping wine. In the
baggage claim area was a customs agent with an adorable beagle that was a food-sniffing
dog. They were serious about that food rule. Glad I didn’t get busted for
banana smuggling. They were even making parents throw away their children’s
snacks.
The first thing I did while waiting for our
connecting flight home, after digging out some US currency, was to buy a large
Diet Coke. Ahh. It felt odd to be back in the states. I found that I kept using
the one Italian phrase that I had actually learned, “Mi scusi,” every time I
passed someone.
The flight was crowded but not very long. We
landed at 7:15 p.m. (12:15 a.m. Rome time) exhausted but happy to be home.
Patti and Denny met us at the baggage claim. The wine in Lou’s bag was still
intact. They took us back to Pat and Lou’s house to get our car.
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| From the internet. |
On the way
home Greg and I realized we were hungry and stopped at White Castle for some
sliders. Finally, we were really home.
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