Final day on the ship. It was one last omelet and fresh squeezed OJ for breakfast. Plus a sticky bun for good measure. We left the Symphony of the Seas at 8:30 and 15 minutes later, along with a young British couple, we began the trip to Fiucimino Airport. I expected it to take about an hour and a half, but we arrived in around 45 minutes. The driver then took us to the Hilton, and we dropped off our luggage before taking the free hotel bus to downtown Rome.
After getting dropped off in Piazza Venezia, we walked uphill on Luigi for five minutes to where the tour buses meet. We boarded a hop on and hop off trolley, which had ten stops along headphones that gave us access to 14 languages. I considered listening to Korean or Czech, but hey, I went with English.
The highlight for me was the Colosseum, without question. To see this 2,000 year structure in person with its magnificent arches and columns, it can't be appreciated in pictures or through a TV screen. I didn't go inside, it would have taken way too much time. But the constant stream of salesmen trying to sell us tickets just got annoying. I know they're trying to make a living and they probably get paid on commission, but six guys approaching me in a five minute span, are we serious?
We had lunch across the street from the Colosseum: fried calamari and a vegetarian pizza. Both were fantastic. The chef grilled the zucchini and the peppers before putting them in the pizza, which gave them even more flavor. Still thinking about how fit people in Italy are, it's still pretty remarkable to me. I guess Italians do a much better job at controlling the size of their food portions than we do in the States.
There wasn't much else to do on the streets near the restaurant, so we got back on the bus. We decided to take an extra loop around the ten stops so we could hear the narration again and who knows what else we could see. Between the sun and the travel, mom was getting tired. We have made a quick stop in an Italian market, before boarding the bus. It was only four stops and with an hour to go until the hotel shuttle left, so it seemed fine. Well it took 55 minutes. We were fortunate to get back when we did and at 6 pm we finally checked in.
I finally was able to check social media and one of my email accounts. I also got a good workout in at a rather impressive hotel gym. Thirty minutes on the elliptical, then a half hour or of lifting. Now I readily admit I didn't know the conversion rate between pounds and kilograms.
Thankfully I had a cinnamon Fitcrunch bar in my backpack. That was my dinner and I didn't mind it. Although some of the icing fell on the hardwood floor and a swarm of ants soon decided they'd have a late night snack. But anyway, there wasn't any shot that I was going to pay the exorbitant prices the hotel restaurant was going to charge.
And then it was Friday morning, last day of the trip. One of the good things about the Hilton hotel is it's walking distance from the airport. We walked outside for maybe two minutes with the luggage, took an elevator upstairs, and walked over three long moving walkways into the airport. I got pretty fortunate because a guy passed me a luggage cart at the top of the elevator so that made the trip much easier.
Thankfully we arrived nearly three hours before departure because Rome has a pretty tough airport in terms of getting through customs. Very few lines, very little space, very few workers. It took us about 90 minutes in total to pass through security, ticket check, and passport control. And then we had to walk literally right through the duty free shop. It wasn't just on the side of the concourse or anything, it was like going through the last part of check in. I tried a very nice peach bellini, but it was too large a bottle for me. I did get some cacio e pepe mix, basically a cheese and black pepper blend for pasta.
We didn't get business class for this flight unfortunately. But we still got a ton of carbs (pasta, crackers, pretzel roll, cherry crumb cake) and the beer and wine was included. I finished watching Get On Up before playing some music. I went with a Johnny Cash roots album, which featured very early recordings and artists that inspired his later music. I heard early versions of "Jackson," "Ring of Fire," "If I Were a Carpenter," "Ira Hayes," and "Cocaine Blues."
Wanting a good film, I turned on Flags of Our Fathers. Hey you can't go wrong with a Clint Eastwood film about American history. Still feeling the Cash vibe between the music and the audiobook, I turned on Walk the Line, I hadn't see the movie since it came out. I know a 2 hour movie cannot do justice to 21 hours of audio. But my gosh, there was so much more of the story to tell.
The plane took about 8.5 hours to land in Charlotte, which was about an hour early and while customs was empty besides us, things got a little crazy. First of all I knew nothing about the rule that you have a backpack, purse, or some other handheld bag that it needs to go on the floor so a K9 can inspect it. I didn't know and the female cop (the latest one I've dealt with who was a prick) so when I looked at her all confused, she asked if I spoke English. I was confused and offended at the same time. Eventually I figured out what had to be done and that was the end of that little saga. Turned in the customs sheet, collected our bags, sent them through to our next respective destinations, went through security again. One hour delay thanks to a passing thunderstorm and then back to Newport News home.
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