The Forster Version of the Amazing Race - Italy in 8 Days

September 03, 2004
We both went to work this morning - I got home at 1:00 p.m. while Deb was lucky enough to get back home at 11:00 a.m. - Deb packed both suitcases this a.m. before she left the house and finished up when she got home. She managed to get everything down to two carry-on's and two small suitcases - Not Easy !

She experimented with a "new and improved" way of packing - rolled everything and it worked ! Jamaica knew something was up - she's been "nosing" the suitcases for weeks. When she sees several bowls of food and water sitting in the floor, she knows she will have the house to herself before too long. When the driver came right at 4:00 p.m. sharp she immediately disappeared - no goodbye cry - no rubs - just gone !

The driver was right on time and has us to the airport in around 30 minutes - We arrived two hours before having to leave, but the line to check-in was really long - but moved pretty well. The new airport is nice - we came across a big glass box with lots of multi-colored blocks that floated around in the water - the box must have been 15 feet high - then the air bubbles started being blow from the bottom and all the boxes floated and danced. It was like a huge aquarium but instead of fish there were small boxes - very unique.

We had to wait for approximately 1.5 hours to board the plane but, as always, we sat there and people watched alot. I played with my blackberry and Deb checked out the passerby's. Finally we got on the plane and seated in Row 13 (lucky I hope) in seats A & B on Flight 866 which was a 747-400 plane. At about 9:00 p.m. (local time) while in the air we god dinner, a small glass of coke with a small bag of what looked like trail mix - Deb was starving.

The plan is that we try and stay awake tonight as much as possible so that when we arrive in Rome on Saturday afternoon we can go to sleep when the Iti's do. We're both looking forward to arriving in London and Munich if only at the airports. And of course, Deb's is so excited about seeing Italy - I think this is a dream come true for her because she's always (from a wee little girl) wanted to see Italy. She has said that I'll probably have trouble getting her back on the plane to come home - We'll see..........

24 Hours Later........
What a long, long flight - arrived at London's Heathrow airport - not a very pretty airport - sort of dirty and very crowded. We had to ride a bus from the plane to the terminal - got our Lufthansa connection and yet another bus out to the tarmac. The planes seem to be getting smaller, home they don't get tooo small. From London to Munich - more transfer buses from the plane to the terminal, however Munich is typical German, new, organized, clean and very high end. Gotta love those Germans.

Boarded our next Lufthansa flight that takes us the last stage of our trip into Roma. So very, very tired but still awake on the premise that we need to get ourselves onto Italian time. Finally we arrive in Rome and I think our luggage took longer to come to the terminal that our entire flight, but when in Rome.

We waited for the shuttle bus to take us to the Holiday Inn. Looking forward to the air-conditioning and cool clean sheets. Well guess what ? - the air conditioning just broke in the hotel but at least the sheets are clean. We can open the windows in the room just to listen to the ambience. All I can hear is like hundreds of dogs barking but cant figure out where they are. We went down for a lovely dinner at the hotel, had a couple of stiff drinks, and a fine Italian dinner on the patio with candles everywhere. We drank so much water, I think that we floated back to our room. I think I went out like a light when we returned to the room without even a good night to my little Debber. At that point, we had been up and going for about 30 hours straight with no sleep. But hey, when in Rome they say. We both woke up about 03:00 a.m. on Sunday morning (the dogs are still barking), closed the window because I saw bats flying around when I stuck my head out for a smoke, so thought it would be the best option with Deb continuing here lovely little snore.

We finally got up at about 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning, had the shower (oooooooh so nice after all that travel) and headed off to the Airport train station. We figured it would be best if we took the complimentary hotel shuttle to the airport and then take the local train into the main Roma Termini.

We had breakfast in the Rome Termini, a coke and a ham and cheese Pannini (heated so the cheese was good and soft), was it ever good. We actually figured out how to operate the "auto ticket" vendor at the train station and even ended up getting the right train, the right seat and the right destination. God are we good for such a group of novice European travellers. Ooooooooo, I think I just saw the twins and the "bowling mums". Well were off to Florence (Firenze) at 8:55 a.m. and we'll see how long we can keep in going on Sunday. Next Stop - FLORENCE !!!!!