Morning came and we woke up with only 45 minutes to spare before the car service picked us up. We had Lucas shower the night before, so that would save time... and two bathrooms in this great little apartment meant that Lisa and I got ready tandem style. I woke our very sleepy Lucas up with 15 minutes to spare but in seconds he was bright and cheery and jumped right up once he realized this was Going Home day.
Our packing was done the night before and was lined up at the door... only our magical, amazing multi-device charger was left to stuff into a carry-on. 6:30 came and Adele` was already waiting out in our tiny piazza. Left keys on the... pull to lock the door... hoist our 4 bags into the trunk of the sedan and we were in the darkness of Rome. The streets were deserted with barely any cars... the least traffic we've seen since we've been here. From Trastevere (pronounced trast-EV-ehr-ee) to Fiuminco airport took about 30 minutes or so. Then another 30 minutes or so getting through security, passport control and then luggage check. Not so bad. We were early for sure but better that than being late. We checked two bags this time, now also using our lightweight duffle that we originally packed for most of our clothing... a great way to free up our carry-ons for fragile gifts and mementos be were bringing back. In fact, the larger backpack carry-on (Lucas' luggage) was now stuffed with our day cooler-backpack we had brought along. We found breakfast... well, sort of... in a cafeteria area with huge glass windows, Italian MTV blaring and a view over the runways and sunrise. Scambled eggs cold, no milk for Lisa's coffee, airport cornettos and a Fanta for me. Lucas and I went into duty-free shop to find a last minute component for his classmates' gifts and discovered there is nothing "Free" about duty-free... all the base prices were 50 - 100% higher to start with... even a 3 bag of M&Ms cost 6.30! Sorry, but people who shop in Duty-Free are what Lucas and I call Shopping Zombies... buying anything, regardless of the actual value or even if they really need it, as long as the words FREE or SALE are reflecting in their lifeless eyes... So, then came boarding. The lines were long and with no little air conditioning neither my sweat glands or my poor knees were looking forward to it. So I showed my handicapped card and we were allowed to pre-board, after the more obvious and more seriously handicapped people, of course. With all the trouble my legs gave me on this trip, I'm feeling less and less guilty about finally applying for the handicapped placard and putting it to good use. Lucas is funny... calling it my Old Man Power! The seats on our flight were exactly the same as the "extra leg room" seats Lisa insisted on paying for on our first flight. So I think this is another United Air rip-off. The flight was long...10 hours versus 8 for the first flight. I think I watched 3 movies, several TV shows and napped a bit... and still I had time to spare. Lucas was a great world traveller, settling in quickly keeping himself entertained with Mom's Kindle (Minecraft and drawing) and watching movies. No matter what food or snack was served he ate with gusto. His only nervousness was with turbulence or during our very windy landing at Newark Airport. Hey, we all had white knuckles with that landing. Thank the Lord... he brought us home safely. The process or passports, baggage claim and customes was slow, but not terribly so... and besides, Newark airport was actually COOL. When we went outside to wait for our dear friends to pick us up, we all loved the 52 degree temps, even though were were in short sleeve shirts. My first time without sweating in three weeks! A few texts back and forth and atast, the Bartels drove up waving like crazy, driving our Town & Country swagger wagon... what a happy homecoming. Hugs and smiles and good friends... Nothing like that feeling. I let Denny drive because to my tired body it was around 9pm. We talked and laughed for the entire hour trip home. A short stop for basics at the supermarket and then HOME. More kisses and hugs and dumping the luggage into the kitchen and we were home Home Home. Ahh. We ordered pizza... take out. Then settled in to watch come comedies on our Tivo that had been building up... then around 8pm (2am Rome body-clock time) we all settled into our own beds. Sleep came fast this great adventure...
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DreamAna travel to photograph. And they photograph to travel. Either way, dreamana want to get out from the offices, and start shooting, and you know you want to. There are some existing trip that already planned out, there are also trips which our curious self would like to go. At times, you might have a destination that you would like to kick off. Whatever the plan or no plan is, lets do it together. Travel is more fun, with great photographs.
Indulge with dreamana. These are some of the locations that we will be visiting comes 2016. The list will grow as the year unfold. If your desire destination is not in the list, just ask us. We can initiate new locations. As each location has different travel needs, our quotes varies. It’s best to enquire with us directly. yours may be spending a day to a week traveling together for pre wedding photoshoot. Be it for wedding portraits, or your holiday. Our goal is to create a good mixture of travel photographs and portraits for a classy album at the end of day. After the tourist lunch we headed back to il Palantino above the Foro Romano. There were lots of steps and some inclined cobble paths but we made it up without Babbo popping. (Huff, puff)
When we got toward the top we saw many ancient ruins... some very large but besides the few sign markers we knew little about what we were seeing. I had Rick Steve's audio tours on a little iPod that dropped out of my pocket back at the caverns. Anyway, we did see the houses of Augustus and evil Livia. And the views from the top were great... all the way to St. Peters. The trouble came when we couldn't find our way down to the Forum way below. They don't make it easy to get out of these places... one way in and maybe two exits... far far away from each other. By the time we located a way out it actually dumped us near the Colosseum again. We we hot, sweaty and thirsty and decided to get back to start packing for home. Of course, the only taxi stand was on the other side of the Colesseum . More walking! We didn't see the typical TAXI sign but eagle eyed Lucas spotted the mish-mosh huddle of taxis and saved the day. (Taxi stands don't always have a neat line of cabs cued waiting for a fare... often they are in a jumble and you have to ask "Chi e primo?"... Who's first?) Taxi home... rest... pack... dinner out at our favorite little Trastevere joint... some wine... then nervous sleep before our morning car pickup. When tucking Lucas into bed he looked up at me with a tired grin and said, "Dad, I'm SO happy we came to Italy! It's been amazing." That meant the world to me... this difficult, beautiful whirlwind of an adventure was worth it after all... I wrote this at the airport where we had a lousy breakfast and are suffering with inadequate A\C again. I pray the flight takes us back home safely... |