Tuesday, May 16, 2017
– Time to go home
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| A Tuscan blend for our wine choice on United - san giovese and sagrantino |
So, up at 6 :30 this morning with the sun shining and a beautiful blue sky. We got dressed, finished the last of
the packing and were on the road by 7:15.
The GPS said the trip would take 2 hours and we’d be at Fiumicino
airport by 9:15.
We
drove (with Mapquest’s help) through local roads in Umbria, past Spoleto and
Terni and Narni and eventually made it to the A 1 to Roma. The vistas of the mountains in Umbria
are so spectacular.
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| Passing by Spoleto on our way to Rome |
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| Rome's outer ring road - morning rush hour traffic |
We
arrived at the Grande Raccordo Anulare – the ring road around Rome – and hit
the big morning traffic jam. The
merging traffic was chaotic – no one worries about the actual lanes, just pushes
into any little open space possible.
We
made it to Fiumicino by 9: 45 for our flight at 12:40. It’s a good thing we were early,
because we had a series of adventures.
Returning the care to Hertz was almost as fun as trying to pick up the
car was. It took a good 20 minutes
before we were able to go to the terminal. It’s a lo-o-o-ng walk to Terminal 3, and the United check in
desk was at the very end. While we
were checking in, we asked the gate agent about Mike’s computer. She called United lost and found, and
they had no record of it. Then she
kindly called the airport’s lost and found office and they went to check. Indeed, they had a silver Mac laptop
that had been turned in on May 7!
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| A much larger than life Leonard DaVinci at Rome's FCO airport |
Well,
the Airport Lost and Found is in Terminal 1 – which meant a big hike to try to
find the location. Off we went,
found Terminal 1 and then had a wild goose chase finding the actual office –
everyone kept trying to send us
back to the United desk in Terminal 3. We eventually found the place and I spied a guy going into the office through a side door and followed him
in. After some quick talking with the agents in the office, viola!, there was Mike’s
computer – all labeled with the UA Flight, and date it was found, etc, just
setting there for the last 9 days.
If we hadn’t gone to get it, I don’t think they ever would have returned
it.
Boarding
was a bit late – the flight was supposed to leave at 12:40, but left the gate
about 15 minutes late, and we were off by 1 PM. We are in great business class seats, 7 A & B – a little
weird because they face backwards, but very comfortable. They served our “dinner” as soon as we
departed, which was a bit of a shame, because I’d just eaten in the
lounge.
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| Italy's coast - Fiumicino & Ostia bounded by the Tyrrhenian Sea |
So,
we were on the eastern and southern side of the plane. On the way, we saw Corsica, the Cannes coast of France, the Rhone
valley, Rochefort and La Rochelle;
the St. Lawrence Seaway in Canada, Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, Port
Huron and Lake St. Clair off in the distance.
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| Corsica - beaches and mountains |
We
stayed up the whole flight, Mike watched some movies and worked on his grant –
seemingly very glad to have recovered his computer. We landed, as planned at 4:15 at the international terminal
at O’Hare, with a great view of downtown Chicago on our landing approach. We were getting tired, as it was
approaching midnight Italian time. An hour long taxi ride from ORD to downtown and we were back home in our apartment. Good to be in our own bed tonight!
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| Home at last. Miserable traffic tonight - sometimes I wish I could just parachute out and be downtown at the apartment! |
