A Little Uncertainty

Taylor and I started planning a trip to Italy one year ago with our friend Margit Beerli.  We  plotted and planned a month of touring to a fair thee well. We will spend a week in Rome, then travel north to Tuscany to meet with our friends John and Bruce.  After almost 2 weeks in Tuscany we move on to Florence and have a grand finale in Venice.

No matter how well planned, travel always involves some uncertainty.  About a week before departure, I learned that our Airbnb hostess, Virginia, is not the kind of person who likes to communicate. After not responding to my attempts to make contact with her she insisted her sister Francesca, who is not mentioned on the Airbnb site, had organized our reservation. Learning that someone I had never heard of was in charge of my reservation got me worrying about the status of our apartment in Rome. I never heard further from Virginia, or Francesca.  I guess we'll just go to Rome and hope things turn out.

Then, the day before departure we discovered that bad weather in New York City would impact our flight plans.  Less than 24 hours before take off and we were suddenly on high alert, trying to change airline flights booked last January.  Our hours of waiting to speak to Delta representatives paid off.  We are re booked through Atlanta and are ready to go. Here's hoping we also have an apartment to stay in.

The night before take off, re booking our tickets to Rome.  We are still smiling.

At the airport in Atlanta and still in a good mood.  Both Taylor and Margit are plugged into their devices.  Taylor shares Alison Kraus singing "Atlanta" with Jamar.  Once we get on the plane it's only 9 more hours to Rome.

We made it.  We landed in Rome.  Our driver was not at the airport to pick us up, but after a phone call he appeared.  Neither Virginia nor Francesca showed up to let us into the apartment.  Barbara welcomed us instead. What's important is we have an apartment, even though we've never seen the hostess listed on Airbnb. It's all highly irregular, but we are not about to start asking questions.  What is important is WE ARE HERE.

After recovering a bit from travelling, we strolled to the Vatican from our apartment.  Here is St Peter's Square.

Shopping near the Vatican for religious gear. Wooden Pinocchio puppets are right behind Mary.

Bridge over the Tiber.

Castello Sant'Angelo.

We ended our evening stroll with dinner at a cafe sidewalk (I still can't believe we ate dinner after 8 p.m.) and a good bottle of Chardonnay.

Calamari, mussels and shrimp.

Now, all we have to do is return to our apartment and sleep off the jet lag.  I think we can do it.