Our short stay in Roma has come to an end. Andrea, the guy who ran the Bed & Breakfast, arranged for a private car to take us to Fiumicino airport on Saturday morning at 07:45. This would give us plenty of time to make the 20-30 minute drive to the airport, make our way through security and check-in, and catch our 10:15 flight. Cinzia had all of our bags perfectly packed, as she always does. All of the purchases we made during these past 4 months were wrapped and tucked safely away in our baggage. We each had a shoulder bag, Cinzia had a medium sized check bag and a roll-aboard, I had a large check bag and a small duffle bag I brought along just in case we needed extra space. We used all of it.
Our driver arrived on time and all our gear fit easily into his van. The airport was fairly empty at that hour, so we got to the check-in counter quickly. We would each be checking a bag. On the flight to Italy Cinzia was able to make use of our bathroom scale so we did not exceed the 50 pound weight limit. She packed both suitcases within 1 to 2 pounds of the limit. With no scale to make use of in Roma we did the best we could. But at the airport the big suitcase was 2kg overweight, so we had to move some items into the smaller check bag so that both were at or just over the 23kg weight limit.
Security was a little different. No need to remove our shoes, but they handed us clear plastic bags and asked that we pull out all of our electronics, including cables, before placing our carryon bags onto the belt. We each had tablets, plus my laptop, 2 cameras, iPod, assorted data and power cables, electric shaver, and on and on. We almost got through until they spotted my scissors. The U.S. limits the blade length to 4" and mine is 3", so I wasn't too worried, but apparently whatever limit the EU uses is less, so goodbye scissors. (I had had that pair of scissors since high school. They were sitting on top of a case where student announcements and flyers were posted at Don Bosco Tech in Patterson, NJ. Apparently someone left them there but they were up so high no one could see them. I could. And since that day they were mine. Now they're somewhere in Italy. What an interesting life they've led.)
Next stop was passport control. Would the Italian authorities see that we had overstayed our welcome? Without a visa we could visit for only 90 days and we had been in Italy 114 days. The lady in the security booth barely glanced at our passports, never scanned their magnetic strip or bothered to look for an entry stamp, and just handed them back to us without even looking up to see our faces. You gotta love Italy.
A bus took us to the Delta terminal. After settling into a pair of chairs we took turns visiting the duty free and concessions to spend the last of our euros. We easily burned through the €35 in bills and were left with €3,80 in coins. Upon boarding Cinzia was randomly selected for another security check -- bags, pat-down, etc. She was not happy as this would be a full flight and we needed to find space to store our bags. Eventually we were aboard, bags stowed, and off on the 10h 45m flight to Atlanta.
Atlanta has modernized their customs process. No longer do you fill out paper customs forms. Electronic kiosks greet you where you scan your passport and take a black and white selfie. A receipt prints out and you head to a security checkpoint to drop off the receipt. It was a short wait to get our checked bags and re-check them. A pass through U.S. security and into the terminal to wait for our flight to Pensacola. A stop at Nathan's for a couple hot dogs (now $2.99 each) and in 3h 45m our flight took off for Florida. Bill met us at the terminal and gave us a ride home to Navarre. By the time we got in the door is was about 9:30pm.
Now, before we left for Italy back on August 13th, we weighed ourselves and wrote our numbers on the kitchen whiteboard. I was 225.8 pounds (yes, our new digital scale measures to the 10th of a pound). Before heading to bed I hopped back on the scale. Based upon our trip in 2011 the under/over for me was a solid 0 pounds. Sure enough, I was 225.8 pounds on the nose. I'll let you talk with Cinzia about her numbers, but if you took the under, you won.
On Sunday Cinzia unpacked all our bags and laid out all of the items we brought back from Italy on the table. (We had done this in 2011, but the blog post never got posted. I'll have to go back and re-create it.) Below is the photo. I won't try to name everything, but here are the highlights: a set of 6 polenta boards, several tablecloths, runners, and kitchen towels, assorted scarves, Christmas tree ornaments, a Bialetti mocha pot, and reusable grocery bags. The edibles included dried porcini mushrooms, balsamico, amarena Fabbri and cherry jams, truffle spread, pistachio cream, dried hot red peppers from Calabria, some alcohol, Lindt hot chocolate mixes, Pocket Coffee, and a fruit cake.
Security was a little different. No need to remove our shoes, but they handed us clear plastic bags and asked that we pull out all of our electronics, including cables, before placing our carryon bags onto the belt. We each had tablets, plus my laptop, 2 cameras, iPod, assorted data and power cables, electric shaver, and on and on. We almost got through until they spotted my scissors. The U.S. limits the blade length to 4" and mine is 3", so I wasn't too worried, but apparently whatever limit the EU uses is less, so goodbye scissors. (I had had that pair of scissors since high school. They were sitting on top of a case where student announcements and flyers were posted at Don Bosco Tech in Patterson, NJ. Apparently someone left them there but they were up so high no one could see them. I could. And since that day they were mine. Now they're somewhere in Italy. What an interesting life they've led.)
Next stop was passport control. Would the Italian authorities see that we had overstayed our welcome? Without a visa we could visit for only 90 days and we had been in Italy 114 days. The lady in the security booth barely glanced at our passports, never scanned their magnetic strip or bothered to look for an entry stamp, and just handed them back to us without even looking up to see our faces. You gotta love Italy.
A bus took us to the Delta terminal. After settling into a pair of chairs we took turns visiting the duty free and concessions to spend the last of our euros. We easily burned through the €35 in bills and were left with €3,80 in coins. Upon boarding Cinzia was randomly selected for another security check -- bags, pat-down, etc. She was not happy as this would be a full flight and we needed to find space to store our bags. Eventually we were aboard, bags stowed, and off on the 10h 45m flight to Atlanta.
Atlanta has modernized their customs process. No longer do you fill out paper customs forms. Electronic kiosks greet you where you scan your passport and take a black and white selfie. A receipt prints out and you head to a security checkpoint to drop off the receipt. It was a short wait to get our checked bags and re-check them. A pass through U.S. security and into the terminal to wait for our flight to Pensacola. A stop at Nathan's for a couple hot dogs (now $2.99 each) and in 3h 45m our flight took off for Florida. Bill met us at the terminal and gave us a ride home to Navarre. By the time we got in the door is was about 9:30pm.
Now, before we left for Italy back on August 13th, we weighed ourselves and wrote our numbers on the kitchen whiteboard. I was 225.8 pounds (yes, our new digital scale measures to the 10th of a pound). Before heading to bed I hopped back on the scale. Based upon our trip in 2011 the under/over for me was a solid 0 pounds. Sure enough, I was 225.8 pounds on the nose. I'll let you talk with Cinzia about her numbers, but if you took the under, you won.
On Sunday Cinzia unpacked all our bags and laid out all of the items we brought back from Italy on the table. (We had done this in 2011, but the blog post never got posted. I'll have to go back and re-create it.) Below is the photo. I won't try to name everything, but here are the highlights: a set of 6 polenta boards, several tablecloths, runners, and kitchen towels, assorted scarves, Christmas tree ornaments, a Bialetti mocha pot, and reusable grocery bags. The edibles included dried porcini mushrooms, balsamico, amarena Fabbri and cherry jams, truffle spread, pistachio cream, dried hot red peppers from Calabria, some alcohol, Lindt hot chocolate mixes, Pocket Coffee, and a fruit cake.
We're both happy to be in our home, but will miss the wonderful people, places, and foods we enjoyed during our trip. The memories, or at least the pictures and videos, will last a lifetime!