We’re back at home, safe and sound. After a lazy day of catching up on (some) of the TV we missed while in Italy, it’s back to work tomorrow for both of us. We’ve got several posts from the last days of the trip in various stages of being written. We’ll be putting them up over the next day or two and back date them appropriately.

Dealing with customs in New York wasn’t too bad. We weren’t originally sure if we were going to have to retrieve our bag and recheck it since we were likely switching terminals like last time. The customs agents confirmed that we would, but all of that process went quickly. We walked to the other terminal building and found the Delta check-in counter. I used the self service machine and got our boarding passes, so all we had to do was drop our one bag. For whatever reason, the agent couldn’t get the ticket to print, so we had a slight delay. Nothing major yet.

From there, we hopped in the security line. Everything for the entire terminal was filtering through two X-ray machines and a single metal detector. An agent off to the side was calling for people with earlier flights and pulling them out of the main line and into the priority line so they could make their flights. “Finally, someone doing something smart.” Our flight was scheduled to leave at 3:55. She started by asking for 3:30 departures and earlier. Next was 3:45 and earlier. Finally, she was calling for 3:55 and earlier, and when we jumped the line we still moved ahead of about 10 spots in line. No major problems at security this time, but our flight had already been boarding for a while.

It didn’t take long for us to realize that our gate was actually in yet another terminal. We needed to take a shuttle bus to get there (at this point we had about 25 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave). We found where the shuttle was supposed to board, but they were telling people to take a seat and we’ll call you when it’s ready. They finally let us on and the shuttle drove to what seemed like the far end of the airport. It was interesting to be down on the tarmac level, but I couldn’t enjoy it much due to the circumstances. By the time we reached the desk at our gate, they were announcing that all ticketed passengers needed to board now for an on time departure (ha!).

We finally made it to the plane and found our seats occupied by a father and his two kids (probably three and four years old). He somehow managed to get three entirely separated seats, plus I just realized that his wife is up in first class. Between us and one other passenger, we were able to put him with his kids and keep Amber and me together.

Once we were all situated, we proceeded to sit on the tarmac for an hour because of “evening congestion.” Our nice long layovers today are both going to end up being annoyingly short. My least favorite thing about air travel – hurry up and wait.

The morning started off well enough. We got up early to give ourselves plenty of time to get our stuff packed up and make it to the train station, then the airport. We caught the Leonardo Express train to the airport, but it was delayed more than 10 minutes. It wasn’t a huge problem because we had allowed ourselves plenty of time, but perhaps we should have taken it as an omen.

We got to the airport and made it into the correct terminal. As we searched for the correct check-in counter, we were directed into the longest line in the airport. It was moving along OK, but we waited at least 30 minutes to reach the counter. When asked how many bags we were checking, we proudly proclaimed, “None” (more on that in a minute). We grabbed our boarding passes and headed for the security line.

Their security setup is something I’d like to see in US airports. When each bin comes out of the X-ray machine and gets emptied, you just place it on a line of rollers that sends it back to the beginning of the security prep area. No staff needs to be involved carting them around and they only needed about a dozen bins for each line. We also didn’t have to take our shoes off which was nice.

Just past the metal detector is where our problems started. As we were standing in line, I realized that we’re carrying two nearly full water bottles. I chugged part of mine, but we dumped the rest in a trash can. I had left my belt on (including my hidden pocket), hoping that the buckle and remaining change wouldn’t set off the detector. Wrong. I had to take my belt off and send it through the machine – you know, because you can hide so much in a fabric belt. As I went through the detector the second time, it went off again. An agent patted me down and gave me the OK, but that’s when I realized that Amber had her own problem. Another agent was telling her that we couldn’t carry on the bottle of Brunello we bought in Montalcino. Duh! It’s more way more than 3oz (100 ml) and we didn’t buy it in the airport after we passed through security. I’m not sure how I failed to think that through. Our only choice was to check one of the bags to get it home.

At that point we had about maybe 10 or 15 minutes until our flight was supposed to start boarding. We weren’t sure there would be enough time for one of us to go back and check the bag and get through security again, but we also didn’t want to lose the most expensive bottle of wine from the trip. I told Amber to head back and I would wait. We grabbed a couple of items from one of the backpacks and she rushed off to the check-in counter. She was able to jump into one of the priority lines and get someone to help, although she royally pissed off some other Americans in the process (they were late for their flight – not our problem!). When she got back to the security line, she was able to cheat up the side and to the front of the line. She didn’t really have any stuff with her, so it wasn’t bad getting back through.

When they checked the bag, they took her original boarding pass and gave her a new one for some reason. It didn’t seem like a big deal, except that it didn’t have a seat number on it. When we got to the gate, they were already boarding, so we waited to get to an agent (they have two levels of people checking passports and boarding passes). Amber asked the first lady about where she was supposed to sit, but she didn’t seem to know for sure, although she indicated it may have been the seat beside mine (the one she originally had). When we reached the second guy, he informed us that the flight had checked in full and gave her yet another boarding pass with a seat in a different row. Not cool; a 9+ hour flight and we’re going to be separated.

When we boarded, we were both pretty upset. The plane has two seats on each side, and three in the middle. I had seat 18E, smack in the middle. “If I’m sitting between two strangers for the entire flight, this is going to suck.” Amber found her seat 24G to be occupied by an idiot (and his wife) who didn’t know how to read a seat diagram. She ended up sitting on the other side in 24D. The seat beside me (18D) remained open for almost the entire boarding process. I almost wondered if they had locked up two seats for Amber by mistake. She finally moved up to that seat, just in time for the guy with that seat on his boarding pass to show up. Fortunately, he was nice enough to swap and take her assigned seat back in row 24.

We separated items from the checked backpack in a rush. How many things did we leave in there that we’d like to have on the plane? Let’s see…there’s Amber’s neck pillow. There’s the granola bars we could have eaten two hours ago. There’s the Advil that could have relieved Amber’s headache. We’ll probably think of a few other things before the day is over.

Our departure was delayed by at least 30 minutes. First, we had unexplained delays at the gate. Next, we had to wait in the takeoff line because they had dropped down to a single runway due to the wind. We finally got into the air, but we both were starving. We’d been up since 5:15 and hadn’t eaten anything (it was about 11 when we finally took off). Now it’s 1:30 Rome time and we’ve finally had a snack and a “meal.” Amber’s choice of “pasta” was actually a cheesy mushroom risotto. My choice of “meat” was a rosemary beef stew that wasn’t stew. Neither was very tasty, but they served their purpose to quell the hunger pains. Only 6.5 hours to go…

When we finished with the leaning tower two days ago, we walked back to the train station to grab our bags. We realized there was a train to the airport which is where we needed to be to pick up the rental car, so we decided to take it. Luckily, the tickets were only €1,10 each because I’m pretty sure we could have walked there just as quickly. When we got to the airport, it took us a while to figure out where to go, then we had to wait on a shuttle bus to take us over to the rental car lot.

When we finally got to Hertz, they offered to upgrade us from the Fiat Panda I’d reserved to a Fiat 500 instead. The price was the same, so we took the upgrade. The 500 is a coupe and a little sportier than the Panda would have been. It looks pretty small from the outside, but was surprisingly roomy on the inside. We’re pretty sure the sunroof should have opened somehow, but we never did find a control for it.

Almost every car over here is a manual. Amber isn’t very confident driving a stick, so I got to chauffeur her around for two days. I didn’t really mind since it was (mostly) fun driving a manual again. I didn’t really have any trouble picking it up, even if it has been several years since I drove one. I was pretty well prepared for Italian driving in terms of what to expect. Everyone speeds, tailgates, and passes where you shouldn’t. They drive on the right, so I didn’t have to make any adjustments there. The traffic signs are confusing at first, but not too bad to understand once you start to recognize some patterns.

From the Pisa Airport, we started out on a lesser highway that ran at 90 kph or about 55 mph. This gave me a good opportunity to orient myself in the car before we hit the faster autostrade highway. We were driving most of the 2.5 hours to Orvieto on this toll road, so we weren’t really sure how much it was going to cost. The autostrade speed limit was not posted anywhere that I could find, but the GPS said the limit was 80 mph or about 130 kph (I confirmed that later). The highway was two lanes in each direction the whole way to Orvieto, with slow trucks and cars in the right lane and lots of passing in the left lane. I didn’t really have much trouble on the highway, although the extra speed was a little intense at times. Our toll for about 2 hours on the autostrade came to just under €10.

We had left a little later than I wanted, so I was already on edge. I’m must have been extra tense on the road, because I was sporting a massive headache when we got to Orvieto. It got worse when we realized that the GPS was taking us to the wrong place. Then I remembered that the website for CasaSèlita B&B had driving directions that I neglected to print (my brain was still in travel by train mode). We saw a sign or two, but missed the ones we really needed to find the place. After several U-turns and a few times through the same roundabout, we finally spotted the next sign and the one after that and then the main gate. Finally.

Yesterday we spent the day driving between some other hill towns in Tuscany. We took mostly lesser highways and back roads, so it was a little slower and less intense. No headaches this time. Most of the towns in the regions of Tuscany and Umbria are literally on hilltops, so there were plenty of great views over fields of grapes for the areas wineries and onto the next several towns. We made sure to stop in several places to get some good shots of the most interesting sites.

This is a shot of Orvieto on our way back from Montalcino.

My Italian driving experience ended this morning when we dropped off the car near the train station. There were approximately 3 parking spaces in front of the Hertz office, so it took three passes before I was able to pull into one of them. All in all, I was pretty pleased with my driving skills. I struggled on a few hills; it took me a while to find the right combination and speed of clutch and gas. I had a helluva time figuring out how to shift into reverse for the first time. It was clearly marked, but the gearshift just wouldn’t move far enough to engage. I finally realized there is a release below the main shifter that you have to pull upward before it will move to reverse. However, I handled the extra speed and the hills pretty well. I even executed a perfect parallel parking job in Piensa. The Fiat 500 was pretty fun to drive, but I’ll be happy to be back in my Dodge Stratus when we get home.

We got up early this morning to grab a few more pastries from Il Pirata before catching our train to Pisa. Most of the pastries from the first round of baking were already gone, but we were able to get ricotta croissants and then grab an apple and peach pastry on the way out.

When we got to Pisa, we checked our bags at the train station and wandered toward the Field of Miracles (the area of the Leaning Tower). Along the way, we stopped at a farmer’s market and bought some raspberries and strawberries to munch on while we walked.

The large building is the Duomo, and the smaller one is the Baptistry. Both are surrounded by grassy expanses and more buildings that complete the Field of Miracles complex. The tower is just out of frame to the right, in front of the Duomo.

Once we reached the Field, we bought tickets to see the Duomo and Baptistery. Inside the Baptistry, we were treated to a brief serenade by one of the staff (the acoustics are excellent). The space is large without much light inside, so we weren’t able to get many worthwhile photos.

Next up was the Duomo. This was one of the few on our trip that allowed photos, but it was also pretty dark. I played around with some manual settings on the camera and was able to get a few better shots of the main altar. I was pleased to see that it was possible to enter for free if you intended to pray (everyone else had to pay just to go inside).

Random Note: Imagine one out of every two tourist around the field of miracles stopping in the middle of everything and holding their hands up in the air. Somewhere nearby, another person was taking their picture to make it look like they were holding up the tower (or pushing it over). We couldn’t bring ourselves to stoop to that level.

After we left the Duomo, it was time to climb the tower. I assumed that they had not corrected the interior to going up the spiral staircase as you circle the tower were fairly subtle. The steps were all worn in the same places, giving each one a dip in the middle from left to right. This uneven surface made the climb a challenge, even more so than the lean.

We were able to walk around the outside of the tower at three levels: one in the middle, one near the top where the bells hang, and one at the very top above the bells. We got the impression that the bells don’t actually ring. They were doing restoration work on the exterior of one of the levels near the top, and the entire middle column seemed to have work ongoing. The views were nice, but not as impressive as some others we’ve seen on the trip.

The last several posts have been backdated because we didn’t have reliable internet at the time. I tried to set the dates and times appropriately. We’re on an hour of wifi in Vernazza, so we’ll probably make a few modifications later. Ciao.

C: What should we write about?

A: Well, today started out much better than yesterday.

C: Yesterday wasn’t hard to beat…

A: I actually got to have eggs for breakfast. And I tried my first cappuccino, but I’m not that thrilled about having another one. (Blue Marlin Bar)

C: You should have seen the look on your face!

A: After breakfast we transferred our laundry from the washer to the dryer.

C: What a waste of €6. We wandered around the town for an hour and a half following Rick Steve’s walk. When we got back to the laundry, everything was still wet.

A: Remember when we joked about trying out the clotheslines outside the window? It’s not so funny anymore.

C: I still can’t believe our stuff isn’t dry after hanging all day. At least it has another full day before we have to pack it back into our bags. After dealing with the laundry, it was time to start hiking.

A: I’m glad we did the hard section from Vernazza to Monterosso first. Lots of stairs, but better to be going up than down, since some of them were so slippery. The lookouts were awesome.

C: I’m pretty sure none of our pictures will do it justice.

A: It was a great way to burn off last night’s pasta. One of the best parts was listening to some people complain about how dangerous the trail was, but they are the ones hiking it in flip-flops and mini skirts.

C: I’m still disappointed that some of the trail is closed due to possible landslides. Do you think it will be open tomorrow?

A: I don’t know. Are you sure you want to spend another day hiking?

C: Maybe we should just take it easy tomorrow. What did you think about Via dell’Amore?

A: It would have been way more “amore” without the tour groups following their umbrella-toting guides. [Many of the guides held umbrellas in the air so their groups could keep track of them.] I’m kind of irked that we forgot to take a padlock; I forgot about it. [It’s currently popular to close a padlock with your lover onto a railing or fence along this path.]

Other than the non-view, what did you think of dinner at the castle? [The place was described as having cliff-side, sea-view tables for two. Those tables were there, but they weren’t using them for some reason. Instead, we were seated at a table behind an opaque sheet of plastic where you couldn’t see much.]

C: The antipasto mare was really good. A cold plate on one side and a hot plate on the other made for a nice contrast. How many different items were there?

A: I think it was eight; four per plate.

C: The penne pasta was also pretty good. I was expecting a more powerful pesto flavor, but it was just a subtle part of the whole. Tasty.

A: My veal steak looked huge, but it was mostly bone. The part that was edible was mostly tough and chewy. The “fries” were pretty sad.

C: They definitely know how to handle surf better than turf. Did we miss anything interesting about our day?

A: Probably.