Daylight

In that there was only one post written from the time I sat on the couch until daylight....I guess I dozed. Ok, I dozed.
The power went out upstairs. Oh, not everywhere, just in the rooms. Just on two floors...in the rooms. In Italian terms "ah, why does it matter, we should be sleeping, yes?"    But WE are Americans...we call the emergency number for the power company and they fix it NOW...right?   Aha...but we were in IT-lee, remember....their culture.
They do not worry about much, they just adapt....

So... I tried to charge my ipad from the plug in the lobby. That worked moderately because an ipad does not charge quickly when you are using it. (Quite unlike my macpro!) No problem, right....because airports now have charging stations for all of our electronic necessities...press onward and wait for daylight to arrive. (Right....when in Rome, even the airport....do as the Romans do, and they do not live life connected to electronic devices!)

Daylight found almost everyone up and at 'em BEFORE the appointed 5:50...be in the lobby time. We had to rouse a few, but we were ready for the walk to the bus by around 6.  Well....WE were ready....but not the bus. Italian time, baby!
We went ahead and formulated our backup plan, which was to drag those suitcases to the train station and purchase tickets for the train ride to the airport (more expensive than the bus)....about the time that we thought we might start moving to the bus station, our driver arrived, so off to the bus we headed.

Clippity clappity...the sound of the wheels of the suitcases going across the cobblestones, and only occasionally getting stuck in the cracks. Clearly, Italians travel lighter than we do! I failed to mention earlier that Catherine lost a leg and a wheel when we arrived in Rome...and my wheel split and dragged on the way to the bus. Two of us did the drag-a-bag routine!
We discovered along the way that a little market was being set up just down the street from our hotel....shopping, and we were going to miss it!

We loaded up and headed out to Fiumucino Airport....and I think just about everyone took a quick power nap...it was SO quiet!

Airport check in was pretty easy. They did not have a large crowd at all for this morning flight. Jimmy checked on everything the evening before, finding that our flight was in good shape, Cornerstone's connection to Chicago was 'iffy' and his flight to Dallas through JFK had been cancelled. Snow in the USA...lots of snow. It brought back memories of our London snow day.....only this year, we have trip insurance, so it was much less stressful for me!

Checked baggage....gone. Onward to Italian TSA. Oh my, it is NOT like USA TSA. What a breeze! It made me miss the old days!

The Fiumicino terminals are very nice. The shopping is expensive with many many of the designer shops represented along the way. The food stands are delicious though and even though the hotel packed a sack breakfast for us (in a 'sack-ih-TEE-no), almost everyone still found something they just had to buy. These kids spent a lot of money on food....they guys especially love to eat, and I guess they budgeted for it.

Some of the students had no seat assignment, which clearly made them nervous. Sometimes you just have to be patient though, and they were....though some were better at it than others. Their patience paid off by the time they hit the plane though...since they were upgraded to Economy Plus and had a bit of leg room. Lesson....BE PATIENT. Americans so often are not patient, we want immediate answers and results.

Thank you United Airways for making our morning go smoothly. Lydia had a ticket with no problems, and everyone had a seat! Off to America and the promise of a great future and excitement of waking up in our own beds......in the morning! Ah daylight....God provides it every morning with the promise of a bright new day!