Leaving Rome

Our limo arrived at 6:00am, we ordered it really early, but it ended up that we didn't need to get to the airport quite so early for our flight at 9:30. Though, I guess, better safe than sorry.

We got to the Alitalia desk around 6:30 and went to line up to get our boarding passes. It turned out that the signs were wrong and we waited for a little while before inquiring and were told to line up elsewhere. We were told that the correct desk didn't open until 7:00 so we waited some more. I guess they needed another cappucino because they didn't open the desk until 7:15.

Josh and I had a lot of time to kill so, what else, I went from store to store looking for other things to buy. I came very close to buying an Armani watch (it was *gorgeous*), but he talked me out of it. He said to get one from a company that specializes in watchmaking. I said "Ok, so does that mean you'll get me a Rolex?" He looked at me, his face contorted into that of a chipmunk eating nuts and said "I'm sure I'll hear that from another brunette soon enough." ;)

We were walking towards our gate, which we were told was B7, only to find out that they switched the gate at the last minute to B14! We had to run the length of the terminal, down an escalator (past Gucci and some other stores I didn't have a chance to go into) and finally arrived at our gate in time to hurry up and wait some more.

When they finally took our boarding passes we were ushered onto a bus and driven to the plane.

Now I'm normally not a nervous flier, but when the bus pulled up to the plane a panel covering an engine was open and there were, what seemed to be The Three Stooges standing around the plane all scratching their heads. The maintenance manual was sitting inside the plane's air intake and there was one guy sweeping under the plane's engine. This did not give me the proverbial "warm and fuzzies", but the plane did, eventually take off 45 minutes late at 10:15.

When we flew into Rome on Tuesday it was overcast so we didn't get to see a lot of the scenery from the plane. Today, however, it was a clear day so we got an amazing view of the Italian Alps. The view was spectacular and we were even able to see a river valley and what looked to be a little town below.

It's always my luck to be given bad passengers to sit near on any given flight. Firth it was the two smelly Dutchmen on the way from Amsterdam to Rome, now it's Zoopie the wonder slug on the way from Amsterdam back to Glasgow. Why Zoopie, I hear you asking? Simply because he has a bad cold, is sitting across from us, and rather than blowing his nose, he's sitting there 'zooping'. His friend just gave him a not-so-subtle hint, went to the back of the plane and got him some napkins to blow his nose. He said "thank you" and stuffed them in his pocket.

Sitting next to Josh is someone who looks like the sailor from the Simpsons brought to life...