Travelling day to Rome today. No pictures to post.

We had a relaxing morning eating up the last of our fruit, bread, etc and re-packed our bags yet again for another journey. It seems as though it's getting harder and harder to zip up that suitcase! Crammed them all into the Beemer and headed to the airport in Catania. Returning the car at the airport was not quite as easy as the last time. Little did we know this was a sign of things to come! Once the car was inspected and approved, we lugged our stuff into the airport. This time we are trying out the discount airline Vueling. I think our airfare for the 1.25 hour flight to Rome was around 70 Euro (about a hundred bucks) and that included one checked bag too. Well, we did get there but you certainly get what you pay for in terms of service. There was just one person checking in all the people for the flight, probably 160 or so suckers. Looking at the clock every so often as we slowly creeped forward the stress level was rising. We still had to go through security too. Then I noticed the harried check-in guy received a phone call, probably from the pilot asking where the heck his passengers are. Turns out the poor guy was checking in both our flight and another later one to Spain. So he said "Roma...Roma only" and we all moved to the front of the line. Finally with our luggage checked (you know, our carry on that was now too big and heavy to actually "carry-on") we advanced to the security zoo. Actually that part went pretty good, except when I went through the scanner it beeped red. What? I didn't even have my belt on. Turns out to be some random thing I think. A nice lady came up and swabbed by fingertips, all clear. Whew.

Next up was actually getting on the plane. We were all hearded down the long glassed in corridor leading towards the smallest Airbus I have ever seen. I was comforted in the fact though that it had jet engines. Not many dents or scratches either. We found our rows and seats and settled in. I now have a newly found respect for sardines. I have never sat in a seat with so little legroom. I am not a tall guy and my legs barely fit. And then there's the seat pitch. Vertical. I mean straight up. When I lowered the miniature fold-down table it hit my stomach. All I wanted to do was rest my book on it. With my reading glasses on the font of the John Grisham novel looked to be size 40. I had to turn my face sideways to turn the page.

Finally we touched down in Rome. Managed to extracate oursleves out of the torture devices (aka seats) and went to collect our bags. Soon we were zipping along in a taxi, a 4-door Prius no less, going 150 kph into Rome. Our driver got us there pretty quickly and we met Roberto at the front door of 16 Via dei Capocci. We are spoiled in that we are only on the second floor this time, and there's a small lift for luggage. Roberto gave us a tour of our new digs for the next 6 days and tips and advice for sightseeing. Off to explore and find a ristorante, Ciao!.