So what’s with us anyway? As the Saturday for our house hunting trip rolled around we quite honestly didn’t seem to be doing anything different. That morning we worked out, heck, we even had an optometrist appointment that morning (nothing like getting your eyes dilated just before driving to the airport). However, apparently you can do all that, pack an hour or so before you need to leave, get to the airport just an hour and a half early and still make it to nearly the other side of the planet. Somewhere in West Tennessee my father is shaking his head. This even included getting to the airport to find out that Amy technically wasn’t booked all the way to Brindisi, Italy (we’re still not sure what happened there, but they fixed it….eventually). We’ve left town using the Charleston airport many times now, but the first one we ever did where you have to walk out on the tarmac to your plane just happened to be a trip that ends in another country, very encouraging.
So we and 48 of our closest friends packed on this model airplane ( I kid, it was a good flight and we didn’t have to pedal) and flew to New York’s JFK airport where we discover the wonder and beauty that is multiple building/terminal chaos (granted it doesn’t hold a candle to Heathrow, where I’m pretty sure on any given day there’s an employee lost somewhere doing his own personal Survivorman show). Sadly, it did mean that we had to go back through security for an international flight. So we found a place in line and shuffled up to the part where you get to take half your clothes off and then go through a body scanner…good times. Because of the line we were held up a bit while our stuff went on through. When we finally made it through our stuff was sitting at the end of the little chute where Amy was asked, “Why are you so happy?” Oh how I wished she had thought of giving him her answer in her best Scarlett O’Hara impression when she said she was just happy to see her stuff again. Then I remembered we were in New York City, even with what little accent she has left he probably thought she WAS Scarlett O’Hara. Onward to an expensive burger and an interesting conversation with some New Yorkers that were headed to Italy on the same flight to hunt down a father’s birthplace. Brindisi wasn’t their final destination though, they were headed to Sicily. When it came time to board we got to see what it was like to have one of those “first class” tickets. There is a LOT less hustle and bustle that way. The real beauty, however, was in the seats.
I will be honest and say that seats that turn into beds aren’t the only way to fly but only because I’ve done it in the other kind of seats a few times already. It is the most comfortable though (and the food is fantastic).
I have now officially been to Rome, though only just barely as we left the international area and were on another flight not too much longer afterwards. It was on this flight that I think I discovered why Italians clap upon a plane landing (or supposedly anyway, they didn’t this flight. Matt Sand, I’m disappointed). The fellow driving this thing was either a retired fighter pilot or was trying out for an air show. Granted it was a great ride but I wasn’t sure I’d be around to do it again there for a bit.
Interestingly enough, driving in Italy hasn’t been as bad as I was told it would be. But then again, when I started driving I started off with the assumption that all the other drivers were stark raving mad and planning accordingly. So far so good. The REALLY interesting part are the side roads, or at least the one that gets you to the nice hotel we’re staying at. As we pulled off the SS7 (highway essentially) Amy’s directions told us to go straight, which looked like it would put us back on the highway except for this little rough patch of asphalt that looked like it was headed into the back of some guys farm. We took it anyway (not without me saying I thought Amy was nuts) and the further we drove the more I thought we were eventually going to end up on some TV show about European serial killers. Just before I was about to just turn us around I saw that we were parallel to the highway we had been on and figured at some point we could get back on. Technically that was true but sure enough this road ended up being the right one and led us to this fantastic hotel that feels so far removed from civilization I’m not sure even Google has found it yet. Still, it’s a nice place no?
More to come tomorrow, got to get some sleep!
