We left early Thursday morning for Providence train station and after about a forty minute wait boarded Amtrak’s regional service 171 for Newark Intl airport where we arrived a bit before one o’clock in the afternoon. Although we were about 30 minutes late we still had plenty of time before our flight and it was a stress-free way to get to the airport. We had lunch, got checked in and went through security—which was also smooth for us since we were not one of those chosen at random for what appeared to be thorough examination, if you get my drift.
We boarded Alitalia flight 645 nonstop to Rome at 4:45 and took off about 5:40. (They only fly non-stop Newark to Rome on I believe Thursdays and Fridays at present.) A bit bumpy in places but we arrived on time at 7:40 Friday morning in Rome, and were greeted by sun, slightly overcast and warm temps, in the 50s. (We have got to start using metric on this trip and stop translating everything back into our former frame of reference.)
A word about Alitalia, more of a question really which someone reading this might be able to answer. Why does a major airline like Alitalia originating from a country noted for great food and wine and warm and friendly people, have what in our opinion is by far and away the absolute worst wood aloft – not to mention the plonk they pass off as being so-called wine? And mind you in our experience this is certainly not a recent development for the airline. And they hire such surly, unhappy attendants, who were, curiously nearly all men, nearly all of whom came across as if they should have been playing soccer for Milan or Roma rather than catering to a bunch of cattle shuttling back and forth over the Atlantic.
OK I’ve got that out of my system. In fact all that was just a minor annoyance and could in no way lessen the impact of where we were heading and what we soon going to be doing with our lives for the couple of months.
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