GOOD-BYE ITALY

Florence to Rome to Boston to Salt Lake. Easy Easy.
Early morning, the cab picks us up about 5 am. We have to grab an early flight to Rome. Carol and Rob are Florence, Amsterdam, and Minneapolis to Salt Lake.

Good-bye see you in the states.

No problem with our flight to Rome. Good news. We get in and have a few hour layover. Next top Boston. Flight is delayed. Flight is delayed. What is the problem? Air Italia is on strike. It should only be a couple hour strike. Come back in an hour. Come back in an hour. The americans are getting embarrassing. They seem like they might riot. The air italia girls have a way to battle it. They go on a smoke break what do they care, the wait is nothing they can control.

The americans are harmless, they are just overly concerned about their snacks. "Will we get snacks while we wait? Where are the snacks?" Where are these people from? When was the last time you had a delayed flight for any reason and got snacks. We also notice we are with the type of passengers, that line up as soon as there is a chance we might be boarding. Imagine they have lined up no less than three times to be told we are delayed. They are willing to wait in a line of pushy people, just to go downstairs and then get on a bus that has to wait to be filled to then drive them to an airplane that won't be leaving until completely boarded. Maybe they don't realize we have assigned seats. Odd these tourists.

Finally we are off. They call it a strike. We call is a long smoke/caffe break. What do we know? Ironically, when we arrived in Rome 18 days ago the busses were on a 1/2 day strike. Very odd. Rumor is that the garbage collectors are on strike in Naples. What is with this country?

Oh well, can't get to stressed. We are on our way and technically this is still vacation.

Shit, we are going to miss our connection. Not to worry the nice gal at Air Italia, says "no problem, it is our fault, and we take care of you. No problem, just find the Air Italia desk we take care of you". Chris was pretty sure they were just pawning us off to Delta once we arrive in the states. But they did take care of us. Well that means they put us up in Boston for the night. Worse things could happen as we end our vacation. Pistons are in town, we get to watch the wings game and we get to end our fabulous vacation over LOBSTER.

We fly out in the a.m.