Plane’n

Arriverderci Roma! A bittersweet ‘ciao, ciao’ to our beloved Italia as we head back home. Happily everything went smoothly. The flight departure was late morning, so we could actually partake in the buffet breakfast that the hotel offered, which was surprisingly good. The shuttle van was on time and not overloaded. Our bags and bodies passed security…although the officer had to dig into my carryon and question the round stone thing I was carrying. He pulled it out, held it up to the scanning officer and shouted, “mosaico!” They both shrugged, handed me back my crude creation, and let me go. The plane was on-time and completely packed. We shared the economy cattle cabin with a college basketball team - very young and VERY tall , all were well over 6 feet, and I’m sure several were pushing beyond 7 feet. Going to the loo was a technical challenge as one had to step over several varsity legs stretched out in the aisle. I don’t know how these guys survived the flight and remained so ‘chipper’! We splurged and paid extra to book aisle seats, in order to make the interminable flight in minimal space bearable for our much shorter bodies! United does eke out a few ‘free’ benefits to transatlantic economy passengers, probably deemed advantageous to quell the mad crammed masses. Everyone gets a neck pillow & blanket, headphones to enjoy the entertainment, meal, snack, and beverages including WINE. I gladly had some red wine with dinner, plus a little bottle of white with my snack, I ate the entire little bag of dark chocolate truffles and watched 3 full length movies - more than I watched during 2.5 pandemic years! I was inspired by Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans”, wept watching Tom Hanks in “A Man Called Otto”, and got a final dose of Rome watching a mediocre murder mystery, “Confess, Fletch”. Once on the ground and deplaned, we were asked to show our passports at several points but never got any customs related questions. We retrieved our bags, stood on the curb until my brother picked us up with our mother’s van, then joined the traffic on the Jersey Turnpike, and had dinner at the American Grill & Bar - Polish Kielbasa & Pierogis and a Manhatten. Back in the USA.