We made it to Rome

Well, we are more than delighted to announce that we have safely arrived in Rome, Italy. We flew out of Indianapolis on Saturday morning with the Super Bowl festivities under way. The traffic wasn’t bad. The airport wasn’t as crowded as we expected. And we were off.

Our connecting flight to Philly provided me with a nice little nap and Brett a chance to read some cycling magazine he had brought along from home. We grabbed a snack when we landed – very messy cinnamon sugar pretzel nuggets from Aunt Annie’s – and some dinner – sushi for Brett and Chick-fil-a for myself, as neither will be consumed for the next two months in Italy. Then on to our overnight flight across the Pond.

The plane wasn’t full, which was exciting. We each took a two-seater row to ourselves, ‘enjoyed’ the inflight dinner, picked a flick from the inflight movie selection and got comfy. After I wrapped-up ‘Anonymous’, I curled up on my two seats and attempted to sleep. There were two kids playing loudly, plus we were located close-ish to the lavatories, so the light show became annoying; but, I covered my face with one of three blankets, supported my head with four miniature pillows and fell fast asleep. Two seats allows you to bend yourself in half like a pretzel in order to lay flat, which causes you to lose feeling in your lower extremities – but other than waking up thinking I had no legs, the flight went very smoothly.

The flight crew woke us about an hour out of Rome with breakfast and juice service. The highlight was not the food, but the view out of the previously closed windows – snow capped mountains. We assume the Alps as the Captain said that our flight route would take us from Philly across the North Atlantic, over Ireland, France and then into Italy. They were breath-taking (well, as breath-taking as they could be with the half-view offered thanks to the large wing blocking half our view) and gorgeous.

We landed right on time at 8:55am local time (2:55am Indy time). We deplaned and made our way through the labyrinth (including a short unirail ride to another terminal) following well-marked signs and arrived at the Passport Checkpoint. We entered the corrals for Non-EU (European Union) passports and waited for our time with the border officials. I presented my passport, awaited the questions, received nothing but a stamp and my passport handed back to me. Great! I’m in! I love Italy!

Then to the ATM to get our first influx of Euros. Off to baggage claim to wait, no joke, 30 minutes, for our luggage. Then to customs. The way customs works in Rome (as in various locations throughout Europe), you have two exits from the baggage claim area to the non-restricted portion of the airport where guests/drivers are waiting, restaurants, shopping, exits, etc. One exit has green arrows on the floor and in Italian and English on one or two signs reads ‘Nothing to Declare’ the other has a table with a bored looking official that has a red sign that reads ‘Customs Declarations’. So, we exit with everyone else through the ‘Nothing to Declare’ door and we are in Roma!

We find our driver, Claudio, who speaks very little English, and climb into his black Benz for our 30 minute drive into Rome. The snow wasn’t bad at the airport – very little left on the ground, no large piles, most fields and lots we passed on the highway were even snow-free. But as we approach Rome, snow starts appearing. Some streets are completely blocked off because of downed tree limbs that simply couldn’t bear the weight of the very wet snow. Most cars were still parked, snow-covered in their spots from days ago. Claudio explains to us, in Italian, that the city has no means of dealing with the snow and that it is basically shut-down. We had read a notice while at the airport in Indy that snow tires or chains were required on all vehicles and that government buildings, museums and historic sites were closed Sunday and Monday.

The snow has melted quite a bit, so we don’t have an idea as to how bad it really was. But no one has ice scrapers in their cars. The public works crews are trying to clear roads and sidewalks with spade shovels and push brooms. We even saw a backhoe/bulldozer breaking up ice on a corner not too far away. Salt was finally being put down on icy spots in Piazza Navona last night to assist in the thaw.

Not having snow in Indy – I kinda liked it. However we did get numerous strange looks eating gelato in the winter wonderland; and since I do not intend to halt my gelato intake – the snow has to go.