Monday May 21
Last night was the last night in Italy and we were packing our bags for the last time. Since I had access to wifi at the hotel decided to check our flight status before we went to sleep. Imagine my surprise to find that the 11:50 am flight from Rome in the morning had now been delayed and wouldn’t leave until 3pm. Of course that meant I would miss my connection to West Palm from Philadelphia, so I called US Air via Skype and spoke to someone about this change.
She informed me that I now was booked on an 11 am flight to Charlotte and from there would actually arrive in West Palm earlier than my scheduled flight. Sue however was still booked on the delayed flight to Philadelphia. After much conversation we were successful in getting her booked on the same flight out as me and then she could make her connection to Atlanta from Charlotte. Nothing like last minute stress but at least we knew about it before arriving at the airport in the morning. Of course I was wired and couldn’t fall sleep till 1 and we had to be up early to allow time for security at the airport.
We got up at 6:30 so we could have a quick breakfast, pack the last minute things, check in online for the flight and be ready when the shuttle driver picked us up at 8:15. He was early and we were at Terminal 5 in no time.
Standing outside the doors to the airport were Italian three policemen, one with a machine gun ready to go. It’s no wonder they don’t require passengers to take their shoes off with that kind of security. Check in was easy and the security lines were not too long although my carry-on bag set off an alarm and the security personnel opened every single thing inside, including a makeup bag. Apparently I had manicure scissors in there but they let it go through after looking at it, saying they were small. Imagine that getting through the TSA? Even at the airport things are different in Italy.
The flight is an 11 hour flight just to Charlotte and then another hour and a half to West Palm. It will be good to get home.
imarancher
I am such a control freak I would have ignited and blasted myself to bits over that airline business. My neighbors hate airports so much that they bought a plane and fly themselves and friends all over the world. I suspect I would have less stress on a commercial airline, lol.