Packing and closing up my apartment…very bittersweet. I’ve been walking a lot this week, just to ensure I see this village and take photos to remember. I’ll be back early May but til then, home to family and friends and probably some new adventures!!
Last night was a bit of a ‘farewell’ get together at Sylvia’s Enoteca. And earlier in the day, I had one last lunch at Saviglia. Around the corner from me. They do ‘home cooked’ Italian and their house wine is very good. Yet again, I ordered the Cacio e Pepe. They offer many dishes and I vowed I would try some of the others! I talked the waiter out of one of their signature water bottles…pretty cool. Then off to a walk down the mountain…and a friend, Patrick, was on a scary ladder trying to fix his flowing plant and wifi wires outside his home. When who was walking up the hill but dear sweet Anna! With a big bag of groceries. I hugged her, took the bag and walked her home. She is talking the whole time in a very fast Italian and when she took a breath, I reminded her I did not speak fluent Italian…she nodded and continued talking. I am so fond of her. She’s 88 if she’s a day! She did say she parks her car in the lot halfway down the hill…well that’s better then carrying groceries up the hill but then again, what???? She’s driving??? Yikes. And it’s a manual transmission!!!
I did a few more errands and walked the village and met Carlo who said he’d meet me and everyone else at the Enoteca at 9:30pm for our little gathering. (I didn’t have the nerve to say I’m in bed at 8:30…shhhhh). I managed to get myself over to the Enoteca around 8 and from there a few friends showed up.
Sylvia’s Enoteca is so fun. The party is starting!!! We all chatted, lots of translating by the few who speak English. Great wine, Sylvia made ‘Gnocchi e Pepe’ and amazing appetizers. Interesting careers these people have, a professional musician, university admin, university linguistics…and just kind people. Great sense of humor and we laugh a lot. They are a tight knit community for sure. They are letting me be a part in a small way. And I am most grateful. I will be more diligent on learning Italian.
So how do I get back to America you are wondering? Phoenix is much warmer so no winter coat needed. I depart at 6:15am ‘rugged up’ as the Aussies say. Two shirts and a bulky sweater. It’s 46 degree weather but I’m walking to my local bus. A bulky warm coat would be great but not to drag on two airplanes. The bus goes right to the train station. And I’m on a train that ends at Fiumicino Aeroporto!
Stops along the way bring in more Italians heading to work. The train is lovely. New and so modern. I have a noon flight and only my overloaded backpack so I sail through security. Now to have my decaf cappuccino and something to eat. Then off to board AA to Philadelphia!
Words of advice: try not to go through Philly Airport. A nightmare. First I’m spoiled by €1.20 for a decaf cappuccino that is hot and amazing in Italy. Even the airport is under €2 for one. At Philadelphia, $4.99. Small one, large is $5.99. But that is secondary. Oh wait, it gets better! No it gets worse!
You must go through Customs to enter America. No surprise there. But you are coming in from a 9 hour flight to a long line of: placing your Passport in a machine correctly and then a photo and a receipt ! Easy eh? Not for 200 cranky tourists who just want to move on! The lines are long. We were all on the same flight and another huge flight just came in with us. We’re tired, we’re in need of serious decompress and this process is awful.
Then onto speak with a Customs Agent. The lines are longer! Now everyone is grousing and getting nasty. Gee, what could this airport do to make it faster and better? Oh I don’t know. Maybe what other airports do? More functional faster processes? It gets much worse from here.
Because I am on a Connecting Flight, I have to leave the Secured Area and go through TSA again. Yes, and it’s a long walk to get there with poor signage. Almost as if they know it’s a miserable stupid process but want you to be happy when you finally figure out where to go ! Hurray, maybe I’ll make my connecting flight but yet again, long long lines. No special line for a connecting flight. Nope. And take your shoes off and in a bin they go. If you have luggage, that is a prior process and lines to get that checked in luggage through security again and then off to their TSA for you and your cabin bag!
Now you start to think how can I get out of the extra miserable dysfunctional process and make my flight? Well there isn’t any other options. But here’s the kicker…in my backpack is a small pen knife. Italy TSA found it, clarified it didn’t open to a larger flip out knife, said thanks and placed it back in my bag. Philly didn’t find it. Did a fleeting thought of “hey you morons, there’s a knife in my bag” fly through my brain? Of course – with a few other unkind blatantly rude (verging on obscene) statements that might have not only confiscated my tiny knife AND myself, I didn’t. So the best I could do was give them my harshest bitch face which I did. Taking my shoes off and carrying everything to a bench to regroup – just a wtf situation that you simply close your lips and move on.
THEN onto a faraway gate to $5 cappuccino. Icing on the proverbial cake. A 4 hour flight to Phoenix. (Note to self – stay out of Philadelphia!)
And I’m back in AZ. More on that later. Good to see my family.
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