I'm back home in Italy and I feel very fortunate to be here after being away for one year. This time around I am starting out in Rome for a couple of days and then three nights in Ripabottoni. This time I won't have the experience of a bus dropping me off at an abandoned train station in the middle of nowhere. Instead I'll be renting a car in Frosinone and hopefully finding some new adventures while lost in a beautiful and remote area of Italy. Jackie and I are meeting in Milan then we are going to Lake Como, Verona, and ending our trip in Venice.
I read about a restaurant not too far from Campo di Fiori that is suppose to be very good. The long way to get there is to get lost and walk around the walls of the Vatican City. Its not every day that a person can say they walked around the perimeter of an entire country. So I walked for hours and arrived at the restaurant at 7:20 only to find out that they don't open their doors until 8:30 at night or as the sign says "pomerigio" afternoon.
The flight to Italy had its ups and downs, referring to more than the airplane (ha ha). Until today I've never been on a flight where people were screaming. As we were going through some turbulence on the way to Detroit the plane suddenly dropped and then seemed to be heading downward. The older woman sitting next to me yelled, "oh shit!" and then quickly apologized. For some reason I laughed loudly probably out of nervousness but we made it to Detroit safely although 45 minutes late.
On the next leg of my trip I was seated next to a big dumb kid about 19 years old with a Texas/Kosovo accent. He was born in Kosovo and moved to Dallas when he was 13. At one point he asked if we could switch seats so he could sit by the aisle and stretch out but I didn't let him. He liked to talk a lot so between him and the crying baby my plan to sleep the entire 8 hour flight didn't work out even with several sleeping pills, a beer, and two vodkas.
Just before we landed, Adjan I think is how you pronounce his name, was getting very nervous. He had never flown by himself before and the boarding passes only got him to Rome. He was never given a boarding pass for his flight from Rome to Albania where his grandma was going to meet him. He asked me to help him and I couldn't refuse. He didn't have any itinerary printed, no confirmation number.
We went to the Alitalia airline customer service and were told to go through the passport checkpoint to pick up his boarding pass for the final leg of his flight. When he went to have his passport checked he didn't have a passport he had a "travel document" issued by the US government along with his green card. They did not accept this and he was detained until they could figure out his documentation. What an experience, at any given time there were no less than three officials sitting around yawning and scratching themselves. I hope there are times when they have more to do then again if they are bored maybe that means Italy is safe.
Buonagiornata
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