He says: Have you ever had a travel day where nothing goes right? That was the Palermo/Rome/Zurich portion of our trip. Everything started off fine. We debarked the ship with no issues and found a cab to the Palermo airport. That's when things started to get interesting. I've been a passenger in cabs before where the driver's ability to follow the basic rules of the road (breaking for other cars, not tailgating, etc.) were questionable. However, our ride to the Palermo airport took the cake. Over the course of thirty painful minutes, our driver went down the wrong way on a one-way street, honked at multiple cars (even though he was clearly in the wrong), chatted away on his cell phone while not paying attention to traffic - forcing him to brake suddenly, and on, and on, and on. If I wasn't losing my hair before, I think I am now. Little did we know it was just the beginning of an epically stressful day.

Our flight to Rome was uneventful, except that the entire 65 minutes in the air was spent having two kids kick the backs of our seats...repeatedly. Even when their mom told them to stop, a few minutes later the sweet feeling of a kick in the back would return.

Our plane was delayed taking off, so we arrived in Rome at 245 p.m. - 40 minutes behind schedule. Our next flight (to Zurich) wasn't until 755 p.m. so we planned on visiting Shauna's favourite place - the Roman cat sanctuary, and return to the restaurant where I had the best Italian meal of my life a few weeks before. However, we should have known it would not go to plan. Our two checked bags didn't end up on the conveyor belt until 350 p.m. - a full hour after we landed. With a 30-minute trip by train into Rome, time was precious.

We arrived into Rome and took the first taxi we saw to the cat sanctuary. I'm sure Shauna has written about it in the past, but it is a pretty special place where volunteers give their time to look after, feed, and spay/neuter Roman cats. It's completely funded by donations and isn't sanctioned by the Roman government. It has run without interruption for 19 years. However, we learned that this could all change very soon. The Roman government received complaints about the site from archeologists who are digging there, and they want it gone. They apparently phoned the authorities who said that the ceilings of the sanctuary are too low and may force it to close. The effect that this would have on the dozens of cats that are looked after there would be heartbreaking. The centre also cares for over 200 dogs at another site, and this too is being threatened due to the potential closure. Shauna and I were both pretty upset to hear this news, as many of the animals they look after have neurological problems, hearing problems, and feline AIDS. The sanctuary provides a vital service to these helpless animals. We were only planning on spending 15 minutes there, but we took an hour. With the time almost 545 p.m. we needed to get back to Termini to grab a train back to the airport for our next flight.

That's when the trouble really started...We bought tickets for the 622 p.m. train and it never showed up. The time was now 630 p.m. and with our plane leaving at 755 p.m. we were in trouble. I ran through the station looking for an ATM to get money for a cab, while Shauna tried to get a refund for our train that never showed. I met back up with Shauna, dripping with sweat, and found the agent still hadn't given her a refund. The time was now 640 p.m. and it was looking like we would be eating close to $600 (hotel and flight to Zurich). I was livid. The ticket agent for the Italian train was moving slower than molasses on a tar field. I couldn't take it anymore and gave her a few choice words. Strangely, this only seemed to make her move even slower.

We finally got the refund and ran to catch a cab. I said to the driver I would give him 100 Euro if he could get us to the airport in time for our flight. The time was now 650 p.m. - just over one hour until wheels up. The driver readily agreed and man could he drive. He shifted seamlessly from gear to gear like a young Jeff Gordon (first NASCAR reference ever on this blog...). Shauna got on the phone with Swissair and explained our situation. They said if we could get to the gate by 715 p.m. we would be allowed to board. I looked at the speedometer and it the needle was pointing to 185 km/h. The driver came through and got us to the airport by 712 p.m.

We ran to get our bags from storage and got to the gate just in time. It was quite a day.