Italian Holiday

Italy 2023

#1, The Prologue

While Italy had not been on my radar as a destination country, when my friends Mark Nowery and Patrick and John started planning a trip there, I could not pass up an opportunity to join them. That decision to explore in Italy has enriched me with appreciation and expanded knowledge of that country’s heritage and beauty. And a Springtime visit there seemed to be a perfect time of year, when, hopefully, fewer visitors would be there.

Tripmasters was the agency that helped organize our travel itinerary. I felt the trip was very reasonably priced. On our own, we planned many of our sightseeing excursions and travel arrangements. While Mark and I determined a longer stay than Pat and John, we extended our trip to include more places to visit. 

The more we planned the more eager I became to go and see first hand many of those historic archeologic sites, ride the high speed trains, and experience life in this storied country.

The foundational plan was to start in Venice for several days, proceed to Florence with a day trip from Florence to Assisi. Back to Florence and from there, Mark and I planned to head south to the beautiful Amalfi Coast, staying in Positano. Pompei was our next destination followed up with Rome as our final destination. 

Over the course of the next several weeks, we had arranged most of our hotels, taxi’s, train tickets and side tours to famous sites. 

There was one concern we both had however. We both had developed coughs and in my case an upper respiratory infection, acute pharyngitis, and viral conjunctivitis which, after a couple of sleepless nights, prompted me to Urgent Care several Sundays before our trip. Medications did relieve most of the symptoms, but not entirely the cough. I did not want to chance getting worse or catching Covid with a weakened immune system, so the next few weeks were cautious steps forward as we neared our departure date. In the back of our minds, there lingered the idea that we might need to postpone Italy if we were not well enough to travel safely.

Fortune favored us as our health(s) did improve.

No stopping us now!

We were ready to go!

A smooth overnight flight took us from Phoenix to London’s Heathrow Airport where we arrived the next morning. Our first step into the threshold of Europe at LHR was chaotic. There were far more people traveling than we could ever have imagined and coupled with airport personnel inefficiencies made for an unpleasant introduction to this airport. 

Huge herds of people were in long, tangled lines queuing up through boarding pass scanning portals. Several times the scanning stopped entirely as the system seemed to become overloaded. Unfortunately, for me, I had not received the boarding pass as the others had back in Phoenix. Already in the long line, at the scanner I tried my luggage bar code tag, which, of course was rejected. As one would expect, this totally halted all those anxious souls behind me dead in their tracks. Not a pleasant sight glancing back at those very unhappy faces. My attempts to catch the attention of a person on the other side was met with “I’m over on this side, I can’t help you”.

What? (and the long stream of those behind me were staring daggers at me).

Thankfully, another airport employee informed me that I would need to exit the line and go back a short distance to an agent who would help me. Like a fish going upstream against the flow, facing scowling travelers along the way, I found and waited in another short line and then was pleasantly helped to secure the missing boarding pass. During all this process, the others had already proceeded through except Mark who waited near the scanning check point. I was tired, upset, confused, and generally a bit rattled at this introduction to Europe. 

Looking up at a large wall clock, I saw it was not yet 11:00 a.m. and our next flight was at 1:15 p.m. so my anxiety dissipated. Breath, I’ve got this, stop worrying.

I rejoined the disjointed queue again and eventually, successfully passed through to where Mark waited for me. 

OMG, that was nerve wracking. 

But wait, it didn’t end there. Moving forward, now in a never ending back and forth, snaking line, a British woman near me declared this was “Crackers”! I replied that in the US we would say this was a cluster fuck! Hey, their description may be more ‘proper’ and my description may be more crude, but suffice it to say that experience was pretty awful. 

Going back and forth down a long corridor we entered the security check conveyors where the masses of travelers seemed endless. My turn up and we found I had a water bottle that I had filled in Phoenix prior to boarding the plane. I now had the choice of finding a place to empty it, losing my hard acquired spot in line or just drink up. Yeah, I tipped the bottle and drank nearly a quart of water. I was not about to re-stress myself facing the gauntlet that I had already cleared.

Meanwhile, Mark, in another security check point had his own difficulties with items that stalled his progress passing through; his computer, a belt and items in his pockets. 

At long last, we were free of all the initial confusion and met up with Pat (and John who was on a different flight) at a restaurant where we reconvened and had a bite to eat, or for me a good cup of coffee to help revive me and keep me awake.

With ample time to spare, nerves now eased, we calmly waited until we boarded the final flight to Venice, Italy. Although everyone was aboard on time for the 1:15 p.m. departure, our takeoff was delayed for nearly an hour. During the time waiting on the tarmac and as the plane took flight, I dozed off oblivious to anything and everything that may have been happening around me. The lack of sleep and stresses had caught up with me. 

No worries now. In about 2 ½ hours we would be arriving in Venice, Italy at about 5:30-6:00 p.m. local time.

It had been a long day.