While we have done some traveling since we got to Rochester, this is the first really big trip that we’ve taken in nearly a year and a half. And it’s been booked for longer than that. In October we’ll celebrate 30 years of wedded bliss – or three decades of no one dying – so we thought that deserved a splashy holiday. So we booked an 11 day Mediterranean cruise: Greek Islands, a few spots in Italy, and Malta.
I have been trying not to obsess over the details for months and when the departure day arrived, we were not really as ready as we would liked to have been. We got Buddy safely ensconsed at the kennel and then stuffed the last few items in the cases and called for an Uber. We had a great start to the trip when met up with some friends in the airport bar who were on their way to Ireland. (Rochester Airport is not big so finding people there is not hard.)
The first leg was ROC – JFK, a short flight that didn’t even merit getting the drinks cart out. Once at JFK, we found out that our code share flight on Delta was actually an Alitalia flight so we had some trekking to do.
Travel tip #1: Alitalia departs from JFK terminal 1. You can only get to terminal 1 by going outside security which means you have to go back through security.
Travel tip #2: Alitalia does NOT participate in TSA precheck.
Luckily we had packed well and getting through security the second time wasn’t too painful. But terminal 1 in JFK was a zoo – there were more duty free shops than toilets! We eventually boarded and got settled in for the flight. And the first thing I realized is that even with all her obsessing over the details of this trip, she had forgotten to order a gluten free meal. D’oh! So the first hurdle was to find something that wouldn’t make her sick. Luckily the grilled chicken and vegetables was VERY plain (and tasteless) so it worked out okay. But the flight was uncomfortable.
Travel tip #3: Seats on older A330s flown by Alitalia recline WAY back. Good for you, crappy for the person behind you.
Regardless of the tight quarters and barely edible food, we actually managed a few hours of sleep. Frank’s actually not sure if he slept but he can’t prove otherwise. I managed a good 4 hours of kip. The breakfast pastry was nasty and not something I could eat anyway so we were glad to get off the plane, find our bags that had actually arrived with us, and get in our prebooked taxi for the 50 minute drive to Civitavecchia where the ship will leave from on Sunday.
We forgot what B&Bs in Europe can be like and were slightly surprised to find ours was basically an apartment on a side street that had been refitted to have 3 ensuite bedrooms and a kitchen for breakfast. The hot shower was heaven to us and we got ourselves sorted and headed out for the infamous 24 hours of stupidity: the jet lagged first day where neither caffeine nor booze has the intended effects and the entire point of the day is to stay awake and not to anything too dumb.
And we almost made it! We found a portside restaurant that did gluten free pasta (with mussels and pecorino cheese – yum!) and I didn’t even care that it was packaged and Frank’s gnocchi was obviously homemade. When you don’t get any breakfast, packaged pasta with great sauce is just the ticket! Then came the wandering aimlessly part of the day. With hours to kill before bedtime and limited interest in anything other than sleep, we decided to go explore the terminal where the cruise ship would be docked.
And we got it wrong. Apparently, there is more than one thing marked “cruise terminal” on Google maps and we spent an hour wandering through a working port, ferry terminal, and other parts of a semi-industrial wasteland before we realized where we had gone wrong. But it was an adventure! And helped get our step total up and prevented us from making the same stressful mistake tomorrow.
We made the obligatory gelato stop, visited several churches, sat and overlooked the bay and then continued to wander aimlessly for a while longer. Then it was cocktail time! Eventually we figured that we could be trusted to do some day drinking without passing out in the drink glasses so we stopped for a martini and the quintessential Italian (tourist?) drink: an Aperol spritzer! We sat and watched the late Saturday afternoon shoppers go about their business, critiqued footwear and hair color (both very interested) and tried desperately to create backstories for the interesting people sitting around us.
And finally it was time to get some dinner which meant the promise of sleep was nearly upon us. I had reached the point of no reason: when you recognize that you are so fundamentally tired that you can’t even make a simple decision without blowing things all out of proportion. Read: I was cranky! So we found a place by the waterfront that looked reasonable and said they could do gluten free pizza – win!
Travel tip #4: if the waiter says the only kind of pizza they can do gluten free is margherita (tomato and cheese), that means it’s frozen.
Frank’s mushroom pizza was lovely and mind was, well, not. But it was sustenance and it complemented the cheap house wine nicely. And by tomorrow I won’t remember anyway.
So here we are at the end of the worst day of any European trip. Frank is alrady snoring beside me and I’m off to slumberland as well. Tomorrow holds so much promise!
Dubious data from iPhone: 20,277 steps
Carbohydrate calories consumed: 10000000000
Interesting fashion choices noted: 24
And now the great adventure is over for this year. It was wonderful and different, exhilarating and exhausting. It’s the longest trip we’ve taken in ages and I confess that the thing that makes coming home even nicer is seeing Buddy’s wagging tail again. Never thought I’d miss a dog so much. Until next time!
and try to remember what life is like when there are alarm clocks, commutes, and commitments. But those tales aren’t for here. If you are interested in the daily activities and random reflections when we aren’t traveling, you’ll need to visit the 
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