How we got to Rome

How we got to Rome via Atlanta, Milano, Bologna & Firenze!

Well, as you know, we were flying standby. We picked up Barbara at 7 am Tuesday morning. Left for Atlanta, no problem at 9:30 am.  However, when we got to Atlanta, the gate agent said stick around but probably "no go"; he said that as they announced they had oversold the flight and were paying $600 plus an alternate route and expenses for meals during the delay for people who would get off !  We did not get on, and waited  pensively to see if we would get on the flight that left for Milan 2 hours later.  We did, just barely,  in coach in the middle seats (ugh). the plane was 45 minutes late leaving and then we had a 8.5 hour flight. More on that later, but lets say the flight seemed like 80 hours.  We arrived in Milan about an hour after we would have arrived on the original flight to Rome. HOWEVER, to get from Milan to Rome (where we had a hotel room booked), we had to take the Eurail 300+ miles to Rome.  After taking a shuttle bus into Milan Stazione Centrale, standing in line to have our passes stamped and reservations made, we boarded the train around noon fifteen traveling through Bologna and Firenze (Florence) finally making it to Rome. A short ( 2 blocks) taxi ride and we were at the hotel San Remo.  After getting up to our room, we looked at some maps tour info, etc.  we had been traveling for 26 hours.  As Barbara sat at a desk looking at the stuff, I lay down just to rest my back.  I promise you, I fell asleep while I was talking to her!  Barbara tells me it was only a short time before she too was fast asleep.  Jet lag? Forget about it! We slept almost straight through and were starving this morning. So we are now off to see Roma! Ciao!