The Big Cashew European Travels - Final Entry 10/29/18

Well, I guess I stated that there would be one more entry in my last update and the people are clamoring for said posting.  I wonder how true that is, but here goes nothing!

That final day.

This is travel day and we get to return home.  Its been really good here and Chiara got to see more of her extended family than we would have guessed.  She has held up fairly well, with just a few issues popping up.  The biggest issue was sleeping in the bed.  She needs to be elevated and it was not easy to make this happen.  Still, it was workable for her.
 
Our flight was at 11:30 AM.  We got up around 6:30, had breakfast at the hotel, finished packing and headed to the airport (Leonardo DaVinci).  The hotel was about 6 KM from the airport so we were there in no time.  It is a fairly large airport, with 3 terminals and hundreds of international flights.  American is in Terminal 3, but is located at the end.  You drive up to the unloading zone and it is more at the beginning of the terminal.  You are allowed to park for about 10 minutes.  They have some means of tracking you so you need to keep to a schedule.  I drop Chiara off with all the luggage and leave her there.  It was in the mid 60s so it was not uncomfortable.  I headed to the rental car return.  I handle this myself, without any interpreting required.  I have done this the last two or three times we traveled and it is fairly easy.  However, you want to get it right or you will end up on the main road out and it is not easy to turn around. 

You drive to the parking facility building and look for the sign for your rental company.  Pretty easy although there are about 16 rental companies and you have to find the correct one on the signs which are not very large as they all must fit on the main signage.  You then drive into the garage and up to the proper floor and follow the sign for returns.  One thing to remember, in Italy, the main floor, or the ground floor is not floor #1.  It is floor #0.  This can be confusing, but I have it down pat now.  I hand in the keys, get my receipt and head back to where I left Chiara.  I get my hands on a luggage cart and away we go to the other end of the terminal.  You have to pass through a gateway were they check to be sure you headed in the right direction.  The main three American airlines are located together.  That is American, United and Delta.  You head to the AA section and wait in line.  Since I have a priority standing, we get severed quickly.  I ask if there is any chance of an upgrade.  I am first in line for that, but we have to wait until we get to the gate itself.  I know that there are two seats open in first class so we have hope.

Once checked in, you head to security. It is a bit of a walk as you head back to the middle of the terminal, but you are now behind the check in area.  Again, you pass through doors to get to the security section.  You cannot get past these doors unless you have a ticket that has to be scanned to open.  Once in, you are immediately in line for security and bag check.  That went fairly quickly although it was busy.  Once through security you move to immigration check of your passport.  There was different lines to account for people from all over so they direct you to the correct section.  We have to go to one for Europeans as Chiara is Italian.  I must follow her since we are together.  But, no issue.  We are through in 5 minutes or so and then we start the next long walk.  Once passed the passport review you immediately walk into the shopping center.  You actually have to go through one of the stores as there is no way around it.  This its like a mall with rather high priced businesses.  There is a separate food area up one floor, but it is open to the bottom floor so you can see everything.  You keep walking and following signs.  We have to get to gate 41.  This requires a tram ride.  They run every 2-3 minutes so no real wait there.  You arrive at the correct set of gates on the tram and then head upstairs to find your specific gate.  Fortunately, we have passes to the lounge.  There you can get coffee, tea, soda, wine or spirits.  They also provide food and pastries.  It is all complimentary and we indulge ourselves.  Another breakfast and some juices.  Not a bad snack.

As the time for boarding drew near, we headed up to the gate.  Since the desk was open and no one was waiting, I asked about the upgrade.  At that moment, I knew it would not be the same ride as it was when we came over.  The two seats were no longer available and no other options were open.  This did not make total sense to me as I had noted they were available 2 hours earlier.  In addition, there were multiple premium coach seats available too at that time.  And to top it all off, I was supposedly first in line for such upgrades.  Something smelled fishy but I had little recourse.  So as we boarded, we took a right in stead of a left turn and headed to seats F and G in row 25.  You win some and lose some.

The seats were not really that bad.  They were no pods, but I was not uncomfortable.  The worse part of the flight was just the length, as it was 9 1/2 hours in the air.  It just seemed like a very long time.  The meal was plain airline food and I had some wine and juice along with my own snacks.  So we settled in and watched as many movies as we could.  We did get some ice cream and the flight was basically smooth all the way.  At the end of the day, we arrived, passed through immigration without incident, except for one issue with Chiara.  Since she is a non-citizen, she gets fingerprinted each time she comes back to the states.  The problem is the machine cannot read her prints.  They do not standout in any way.  I takes multiple times, wetting of the fingers, then putting lotion on them and pressing down hard to get a workable set.  This usually adds about 5 minutes to our exit time.  They finally got the prints to be read, they stamped our passports and we were on our way. We got our luggage, and out we went.  The end of the travel day, except for the ride home. 

The trip was successful and very rewarding to Chiara.  The family was happy to see her and tolerated me.  I had my octopus meal and Gelato multiple times.  We might even have set up things for some of them to come to the States in the spring of next year.  Chiara'a sister and hubby, Angela and Pietro, and possibly their friends, Gigi and Andreina.  We will see.  I let them know we have the room to put them up. 

Until then, arrivederci!!!!!.