2016 ITALY Rome 3 - Getting There

On September 15, eight folks met at the Radisson Hotel in Kalamazoo at 13:00 for a limo-van to O'Hare Airport in Chicago. We were happy to meet our new traveling buddies again. The others had gone a few days ahead and would meet us at the hotel in Rome.

The limo was clean and roomy with mood lighting. A little background opera music would have been nice to set the tone. But the chit-chat and anticipation keep the ride entertaining. All in all quite comfortable. The driver was another story. He was a speeding maniac who drove all over the road, much of the time straddling two lanes or median.

I don't know how Chef could handle sitting in the front seat without saying a word. We were all hoping to make it alive to the airport and thankfully we did. We certainly would be happy to see Guiseppe again, our tried and true driver from last year's Italy trip.

We had some time at O'Hare before the flight so we all stopped at the Tuscany Cafe near our gate. I had a Caprese sandwich and Mike had linguine Alfredo. A highlight here was the bread. So tasty. Of course, there was wine to wash down our meal.

We boarded our United flight at 17:25 for an on-time 18:10 departure. Our non-stop flight time was 8-½ hours. Mike read pretty much all the way. The book was appropriately a bio-history on Mussolini and Italy. I watched movies--London is Falling (so-so), Alice Through the Looking Glass with Johnny Depp (colorful, but not as good as the first one), and Nice Guys (recommended and funny).

Our route took us just south of Greenland and south of Paris. We flew near Cannes and Monaco and just north of the French island of Ajaccio. Top speed that I noticed was 645 ground miles per hour. Altitude was as high as 39,008 feet with temp at -73 at that height. Thunderstorms outside of Rome delayed out flight landing by about 20 minutes. We arrived on September 16 at 10:50. It was 69F degrees out, about the same as when we left Kalamazoo.

Customs was a breeze. Next we stopped to get euros at the ATM and then hopped on our two vans to the city. Our hotel was the Palazzo Navona, an excellent location for browsing central Roma.

It was quite modern and very posh. Not quite what I expected as far as traditional Italian, but an excellent choice. The room was large and with every amenity. We had a king bed, desk, fabulous bathroom, and lots of closet space with a safe.

 

Here's our view from the room. Some of the window shades went up in the evening and we saw families gathering for dinner. Every day Italian life right before our eyes.

Continued ...