First Day in Rome

First of all, let me just say...A 12 hour non-stop flight is just too dang long for us. Cerebral palsy boy and rheumatoid arthritis girl just can't do it. We flew Delta from Boise to LAX. Then Delta partnered with KLM who partnered with Air Alitalia. So it wound up being an Air Alitalia plane for the 12 hour LAX to Rome overnight flight. Those seats are tight and close with no legroom! Add in the two folks who sat in front of us reclining their seats all the way back the entire time and it was a miserable trip. The guy sitting in front of me must have had a seat that was a little off because when he reclined his it smashed into my knees. I could not move my legs at all. Ever. And in the reclining position the top of his seat came within just a few inches of my face. Seriously. Maybe six or seven inches away from my head. The whole flippin' flight. Along with hubby being squished by the person in front of him, his TV screen wouldn't turn off so he had a glow in his face all night.

Then there was the baby who was crying. And the restroom I wound up in with no toilet paper. Oh, yeah, and the flight attendant who was gruff and stern and downright rude to passengers (not to us, thank goodness), raising her voice, pointing her finger. Then there was the one who kept coughing in his hand as he was pouring beverages, including my water. I'm going on record right now - if I get sick it is because of him.

And shall we talk about the wheelchair assistance issues at both LAX and Rome? We won't, but we had problems both places.

All those things rolled into one day made us come to a decision.

Never again. Never again will we take an overnight flight. Never again will we take a long flight. Our bodies can't do it. The amount of physical pain the last 24 hours has caused? Unbearable. So we won't be attending that wedding in India. We won't be visiting Australia. And Norway just got taken off our must-see list.

But we're in Rome. Not sure it was worth what we endured, but maybe after the Tylenol PM kicks in and the morning comes we will have a bit more clarity. After taking the Terravision Bus (only 5.30 Euros when you buy the ticket ahead of time -  a great bargain) to the Termini Station we I dragged the suitcase across all those darn cobblestones to get to our hotel. In a drenching rain. In fact, it's been nothing but drenching downpours since we arrived.

A rainy bus ride

We're wet, our clothes are wet, inside the backpack is wet, and the suitcase is in pretty darn wet as well. Clothes are stripped and we have our pjs on - at 3:30 in the afternoon.

Rainy view out our hotel window

We did collect a stash of snacks from the plane (it was too uncomfortable to eat much) along with our two protein bars so we have a boring, mostly unhealthy dinner.

First night's dinner in Rome.

We are desperately in need of some rest. We'll regroup tomorrow and hope to make a better day of it.

And Away We Go...

If you remember, back last year we realized we didn't want to do a bucket list. We followed the lead of Scott Jones (you can see his inspirational Ted Talk here) and decided on a f*** it list. You can find our list here.  If you notice, the first thing on our list is no early mornings. But we had to make an exception today. 

While we were originally going to use this early morning flight to get us a long stopover in Amsterdam on our way to Rome, our flight was changed a couple months back and we were being rerouted through LAX. We could have used those hours in LA to take a tour or head to the beach, but with security the way it is, with traffic the way it is, and with the way hubby's mobility is, we thought it best to just stick close. So a relaxing breakfast, relaxing lunch, and lots of people watching was planned. We found ourselves a quiet corner and did just that.

And also watched construction.

Had some delicious wood-fired pizza.

Left an encouraging words money pocket in a restroom.

Now away we go!