Trip to Rome

Blaise Says . . .

Blaise no longer says Zzzzzzzz. He no longer has a headache and here is what he says...

Well day 1 is in the books, and boy was it a doozy; I’m sure by now most of you know that with Blaise making the arrangements that planes, trains and automobiles would come into play at some point, well all but trains certainly did.  We left from around 11A, Brandon dropped us off around 9 so all in all (with a 7 hour time change) it took 25 hours to get here, I can’t wait for teleportation to an acceptable mode of transportation.  I even asked Ami during linner how much she would be willing to pay for the ability to instantly beam across the universe, we agreed 5K would be the tops, seemed a bit low considering Geena Davis had to give up on Jeff Goldblum during the R&D phase but I digress; extra points if you are old even to get the reference.

I was able to pick up a number of travel points from this little exercise though, my brother had always extolled the greatness of Jetblue but I was always whatever, airlines are all about the same, except for Spirit, which I can truly appreciate, but he was absolutely correct, Jetblue was phenomenal, great legroom, Ami’s legs even fit, and free wifi so I could work from my phone while in flight, tremendous!!!  If I have the opportunity in the future I’ll certainly look to see if we can make it work, excellent experience overall.

So for the big unknown, from Boston to Lisbon Portugal was via TA Portugal (TAP for short), of which I knew nothing prior to my plowing through the interwebs for safety and crash data knowing that Ami was going to go full on 20 questions before she was going to get on an airline she had never heard of, both did happen prior to me booking it but it didn’t stop her from reminding me that if it crashed that she was not ever going to forgive me for cheaping out, I concurred and accepted that I would accept that in perpetuity (and perhaps into pergatory) I would forever accept that it was my fault that things went poorly; not the case, TAP was a pretty nice airline, the plane looked beautiful and the legroom was fine for a 5 ½ hour flight, I slept, Ami did not!!

Lisbon airport was a whirlwind experience, we had 50 minutes to clear customs and security to make our connection to Rome (yes finally, Roma), fortunately we landed 20 minutes early so we made it with about 10 minutes to spare.  I had called them and asked if this was doable during the booking and was assured that people make that connection all the time, I suspect they’re always early from Boston and that’s the only reason they make it.  So Lisbon is pretty at night but I did make one unusual observation coming in, they don’t have a huge metropolitan street light system, just a bunch of spider tentacles, I assumed that they were conserving electricity by not lighting up all the lesser roads, nonetheless it was an  interesting view.

The flight to Rome was a short 3 hours and I’m going to pat myself on the back for knowing that Ami would be none too happy with my travel arrangements by this point so I had splurged on the exit row seating, I had forgotten it had been so long ago but I was thrilled with smarter and wiser Blaise of a few months ago and we sat with over 3 feet of legroom next to the door with only her and my seats in that row, it was fantastic, she finally slept a bit, and as soon as we touched down all was right with the universe again.

We got the hotel hookup from Guy Rodgers who got married in this hotel and loves it, we do too now!!  It’s definitely off the beaten path and the taxi driver clearly had never taken a fare here, (I know because he got lost), but it is fantastic in every way.  It is a converted monastery that was built in the 1800’s that now is half hotel and half monastery, it’s still has a working church that holds daily mass (where Guy got married)!!  It feels more B&Bish than it does hotel but I love the look and feel of it, and the people here are terrific as well, I would definitely recommend it. But be prepared, it’s in a very non-descript looking facade that you can easily miss if you weren’t looking for it.

Dinner was at La Scala, yes there’s a La Scala here too (the one in Westlake is not the only one), Ami’s food was great, they brought me the wrong meal and considering Memrise never taught me how to say it’s the wrong meal in Italian I woofed it down without a second thought.  But the highlight of the day was getting into our room, check-in isn’t until 3P so after being up about 24 hours straight the God’s had decided to tantalize us a bit more by making us wait another 2 ½ hours before we could check-in, sheer punishment for past indisgressions I suspected.  By now I had a full blown migraine from lack of caffeine so I went straight to bed for 3 hours, now I get to regale you with travels while Ami gets to sleep, it’s about 3A here right now but all is good, soon we will get to see the Sixteenth Chapel (still wondering what happened to the other fifteen :)) as well as the Map, Tapestry and Raphael’s Room, I can’t wait.  I can’t wait, time to “pester” Ami before we have to pop over.

One note I left out about the hotel, they provide you with a phone that you can use as your own while you’re here, Nav, calls etc just in case your device isn’t functional here, I don’t believe that’s the case with ours but we did shut them down when we hit Boston.  A very nice little perk to differentiate themselves.

Second note, day one and no facial injuries, all trending nicely!!  More later...

Ami Says . . .

We made it!  As I write this, we are in our hotel room and Blaise is sleeping trying to get rid of what we call his travel headache.  He often gets a bad headache the day after we arrive somewhere by plane and sometimes that day.  It is 5:15 PM and I am dying to get out and explore Rome.

D/FW to Boston

Not much to share about this leg except jetBlue is amazing!  Lots of legroom for my amazon legs. Free WiFi.  The employees are friendly.  All in all a great experience. The flight was almost 4 hours and we had a 2-hour layover in Boston.  Watched the movie Baby Driver.  I thought it was entertaining. Not Oscar-worthy, but entertaining.

We ate at Wahlburgers.  That was a tasty burger!  We had to check in at the gate for a passport check.  We were all good to go.

What was particularly bad at this airport were the hoverers near the formation of the line for boarding.  I guess people don’t think they are going to get on the plane if they don’t wait right by the line?  Or there won’t be a place for their carry on?  It drives me nuts.  And then when your “group” is called, you can’t hardly get in line.  TAP Portugal calls people by rows from the back of the plane forward, after they get the first class passengers, military, and people who need extra assistance (handicapped and those with children - don’t get too testy folks - I’m not trying to imply they are one in the same - that’s just how the airline calls them).  I wish more airlines would do it this way.  It seems more logical and more efficient to board from the back to the front.  But we would hate to upset the delicate nature of their platinum members.

D/FW to Lisbon

This was only a 5 ½ hour flight.  I kind of liked splitting up the long trip into smaller segments - 4 hours to Boston, 5 ½ to Lisbon, and then 3 hours to Rome.  After taking sleepy-time Tylenol, 2 mini bottles of vodka and 2 glasses of wine, I slept not a wink.  Blaise snoozed like a baby. So frustrating. I watched that Kidnapped movie with Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn and a few episodes of Big Bang.  The movie was mildly entertaining but by no means great.

JetBlue spoiled me.  My legs were quite cramped on this flight and I am certain that is why I did not sleep at all.

The airport in Lisbon was not my favorite.  It had a very industrial feel to it and it appeared they had done nothing to upgrade the place since the 70’s.  The inside of the airport was muggy.  I hate that.  It did not help that it was a bit rainy outside, I’m sure.

Thank God our flight landed nearly 30 minutes early or we would have not made our connection.  When Blaise booked the air, he actually called TAP Portugal to assure a 1-hour layover was enough to make the connection.  “Oh sure. No problem,” they said.  I call bullshit.  We had to wait in line to clear customs - that took about 20 minutes.  Then we had to go back through security and that took even longer. We finally got to the gate. They hadn’t started “boarding” (and I use that term loosely), so we took a quick potty break.  I had a line of course so by the time I got to the gate, Blaise was in line to board the plane so I cut.  Yep, I cut in line.  Walked right up to my husband like I was there the whole time.  They zipped our boarding passes and we headed down the steps to board the plane. Oh wait, the plane wasn’t really down the steps.  It was a bus. To take us to the plane. Now remember, it is warm and muggy in that airport and we had been hoofin’ it to assure we didn’t miss the plane.  I am none too happy to get down those steps and see a bus.  Filled with people.  And an airline who wanted to play “How many people can we fit on this bus.” The doors to the bus finally shut and I was stuck. We drove for what seemed like long enough to be in Spain at the end of the ride to get to the plane sitting on the tarmac.  It was probably only 10 minutes.  Then we just sat there in the bus with the doors closed for a few more minutes.  Meanwhile, I am miserable.

Lisbon to Rome

We finally get on the plane and the happy news is we have an exit aisle!  My legs were happy.

Others were playing musical seats, I guess.  One guy was sitting in the wrong seat which he “found out” when the person assigned to the seat arrived.  He got up and went about 10 rows away from his original seat.  I’m thinking he might have just picked a seat he wanted to sit in.  That brought an onslaught of shuffling around.

About 10 minutes before we landed, one of the flight attendants came and got a couple and escorted them to the front of the plane.  We originally thought this was because maybe they had a connecting flight with a tight window.  They tried to get into the overhead bins on the way up to the front, hunting for their stuff but opened 2 before the flight attendant said something to them and then the simply left their carryons and went to the front.  Later while we were de-boarding, the couple had to wait for people to leave the plane so they could walk back and get their stuff.  Very odd.  It made no sense to move these people to the front of the plane 10 minutes before landing only to have them wait to go back and get their luggage.

Rome!

We were so happy to see our luggage on the carousel!  When you check them at D/FW and don’t see them until 3 flights later, you wonder if they successfully made the trip all the way with you.  They did.

We took a taxi to our hotel - Voi Hotel Donna Camilla Savilla.  According to Guy Rodgers, it is partially a working monastery.  Although I have not confirmed this, there is a chapel that holds daily mass here.

It is a beautiful building with great architecture.  If I could easily figure out how to send pictures to the machine I blog on, I would post them here.  But until I figure that out, I will simply post them on Facebook.

The hotel gives you a local smartphone for your use while you are there.  You can make calls, even call home if you want to, and use Google Maps to find your way around the city. Genius.  FYI, this hotel was not extremely expensive so it isn’t a perk of some fancy schmancy hotel we paid a bazillion dollars a night for.

We ate lunch at an outside cafe while a couple men played the guitar and accordion.  So very Rome.  

Hopefully Blaise’s headache will be gone soon so we can walk around a bit.  I want to go to the back to the Trevi Fountain tonight.

Things I’ve Learned So Far

1. I hate airport soap.  My hands are like sandpaper afterwards.

2. I still love Rome!

Coming Up . . .

Tomorrow is our tour of the Vatican with Francesca, a visit to the Pantheon, and hopefully a few other things.

Friday midday, we head to Civitavecchia to catch our boat (Celebrity Reflection) which leaves at 5 PM.  Saturday, we are at sea, and Sunday Barcelona!