Woke up this morning in Vorno, Italy! The birds are chirping and the owl hooting. A sweet cocker spaniel and a kitty cat on property and we are right at home.
But it was an adventure to get here, to put it mildly. We left Atlanta on Friday as planned (thanks, Barb, for the airport ride) and made our flight to Miami with no problem. Once we got there, however, it became rapidly apparent that our plans were going to run amuck as our flight from Miami to JFK was already two hours late, meaning we would miss our connection in New York, where we were supposed to join up with Marianne for the flight to Pisa. Over a late lunch, we pondered our alternatives and finally arrived at a plan to take the 5:50pm flight from Miami to Charles de Gaulle and then a flight to Pisa later Saturday afternoon. There was an earlier flight from CDG to Pisa but we were assured that it was full and we wouldn't make it.
Aboard the 747, we had an uneventful trip to Paris. I will say, though, that we both found the Delta experience to be superior to the Air France experience, where we were hard pressed to even get water. Food was good but service less so. In any event, we landed in Paris Saturday morning around 8:30am. Checked in with the Air France service desk and, again, were advised that we could try for the 9:55am to Pisa but would likely not get on. Intrepid as ever, Alan said, "we're trying anyways." Passport control, long walk, shuttle bus, another security checkpoint, and we were at the Pisa gate -- along with a whole host of other people. No way we were making it on, but we stuck around anyways, until everyone had boarded and the gate agent said, "what are you doing?" We said, "stand by?" and she said, "come on!". So, there we were, on the plane to Pisa, landing about the same time as originally planned.
Arriving in Pisa, we were just about positive that we would have been separated from our luggage -- and we were. It still hasn't shown up. Filed the claim and headed out into the utter madness of the Pisa airport to await Marianne. Her flight was an hour late, so it was awhile, but finally she emerged from the baggage area, with an attendant pushing her wheelchair while pulling two bags. Her driver was waiting to whisk her away and we were, shall we say, superfluous. :-)
In any event -- onward ho to the Avis counter where after a somewhat longish wait Italian style, we were given not the car we had reserved but at least an automatic. But without the GPS that Alan had ordered. Hmmm. We, of course, had no paper maps. He had downloaded the full Italian map system onto his phone but it was completely dead. So, off we went courtesy of Google maps on my phone. We did very well until the end when the G failed us entirely with our endpoint. It had us up a truly vertical, narrow, rocky dirt road where we ended up in someone's front yard. Small front yard, I might add. And keep in mind that we are jet lagged and in a foreign land. I have to say we handled it admirably. I got out of the car, directed the turn around, and Alan headed back down the twisty turny road.
Back in the town of Vorno, we poked around in multiple ways, to no avail. We got out Alan's iphone, newly charged, and it gave us a new set of directions, which we attempted to follow. Nothing was seeming to work but we also thought we were close (or, at least, the phone thought we were), so we finally pulled the car over, prepared to walk. No sooner had Alan had turned down a road than he said, "there it is!" Indeed, Casele Sodini, at last.
Marianne was waiting for us and after a brief chat, we headed for a little nap. Dinner at a local restaurant, La Bettola, completed a very pleasant evening. Highlights of the meal -- fantastic cantelope with prosciutto, ravioli with sage and ricotta, and lemon sorbet.
This morning Alan and Marianne are sleeping and I'm the one wide awake. How odd is that?
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