Italy: Day 1

Don't get excited.

Day One of our trip consisted of an early morning, several pond jumpers, and a long plane ride. But hey, Italy ain't right around the corner. It takes awhile to get there. Travelling to Italy was definitely an adventure though.

We started in Baton Rouge. Shout out to Drew for driving us to the airport. We got there super early and hung out. Matt played suduko while I read a book about Paris. We should have been sleeping.

We went from BR, to Charlotte, to Philly. In Philly, we scarfed down a piece of pizza for lunch and then boarded a big ol' plane. It had 8 seats across. Two by the windows on each side and then four in the middle. That bird was huge. Best part - little tv screens on the back of each seat with individual controllers. Worst part - the little old ladies in the seats in front of use who didn't know how to work them and kept calling the flight attendant. Matt and I lucked out (thank you, travel agent) by getting window side seats. He got the aisle, I got the window. Perfect combination. While I don't really care about looking out the window (at nothingness, see below), there is usually a little ledge that is perfect for putting on foot on. It gives me just enough extra leg room that I'm comfortable.

Shortly after take off, supper came. You know, like two hours after take off. But hey, on an eight hour flight, who really keeps up with time? (Me! Me!)

THe special - chicken something. Matt liked it. Our meals weren't bad. Kind of like a Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice. But with a very tasty brownie.

My vegetarian option. No, I'm not a vegetarian, but I wasn't real keen on eating chicken on an airplane.

Again, the food wasn't bad. But it wasn't good either. After supper Matt was still hungry and mentioned it to one of the flight attendants. He went and ferretted out some pretzels. Like three packs!! For an industry that is falling out of the sky (no foreshadowing intended), that attendant sure was flippant with the pretzels he was handing out. I won't report him though because I like Matt better when he has eaten. Low blood sugar and that man don't go well together.

Our view from the plane? Can you tell what it is? Me neither. It may be the outskirts of Philly. It's hard to tell.

Back to those little old ladies. They didn't sleep. They didn't try to. They didn't even turn off their reading lights (that were pointed straight back at us...) or get out their complimentary pillows. They did, however, keep attempting to watch their little televisions. And call the flight attendant. All. Night. Long. I don't know what they look like, but they better hope not to end up in a dark alley with me. Seriously.

After a relatively long night (not really, it was the shortest day of our lives - 17 hours instead of 24), we landed in the Rome airport. It was crowded, run down (but clean), and completely not American. We found our transfer to the hotel fairly easily and caught a ride with another girl on our tour into the city. And then the real adventures began...

Stay tuned for Day 2!