Well as usual, day one and day two become a big blur. We left St.Louis and landed in Atlanta as our International jumping point. Everything went smoothly and I made it through TSA without being frisked or my carry on pulled for inspection! Success!
Our plane in Atlanta was just a touch delayed which gave us time to scarf down a piece of pizza (yes we know...going to Italy and eating pizza in an airport...but it's pretty much a for sure non-food poisoning item and it's a long flight). After my cheese slice I decided to take my Xanax at the airport and not after take-off like I usually do. Good plan. Before we even took off I was starting to snooze so I got out my beach balls, blew them up, and stuffed my body pillow case as usual to make my transatlantic "nest". I also got something new, some eye shades from my friend Geory that were unexplainably fabulous. I'll have to post the picture I took of them as they were amazing. We laughed because they looked like a little bra, as the eye parts were bulged out just a smidge - which meant my makeup and eyelashes weren't smashed against the fabric. Also, I could open my eyes with them on. Complete darkness. AND I woke up with makeup in tact! Between those, my sleepy pills, my beachball pillows and earplugs, this sister was out like a light for nearly the entire 9 hours. My watch tapped me 6 hours into the flight to take my sinus meds, but then I was fast asleep again until breakfast was being served on the plane. So basically, on a nine hour flight, I was awake for about an hour. So note to self, take meds earlier as I was fully awake in Milan for the drive to our first destination. We rented a car through a company called Sixt and it was a snap. Short line at immigration, short line at the car rental, a quick walk across the street to the rental place, our car was #3 in the line. And the best part...and first time ever in Europe...an automatic!! Wooo!
One new thing I'm trying this trip is a pocket wireless device from a company called TEP. We are renting it. It arrived at our house two days before departure and I charged it up without turning it on. When we got to Milan, it opened up and I got my phone hooked to it right away, but when we got to the car it was off. I plugged it in the charger in the car, but it seemed a bit wonky, not wanting to stay on. Supposedly the charge only lasts 20 hours when off, so I'm guessing it just needed a good charge. However, my GPS worked on my phone without cellular data on and our car had GPS and well, so luckily we didn't need it. Nothing like having both GPS ladies talking to you at the same time giving you different directions. We never made a wrong turn, but we listened to my phone instead of the car's GPS. Only once was there a close call as to a wrong turn. But back to TEP, it is about the size of a cell phone and you toss it in your backpack and you have wifi for about 6-8 hours wherever you go. This is to replace the usual changing of the iPhone SIM card to a European carrier. TEP is 24-7 unlimited data at about $10 per day. Overall it will cost just a bit more, but I'm curious to see if it's worth it.
The traffic was easy, but near Genoa there were a couple of accidents that probably costs us about an extra half hour in the car. That was fine as we were doing O.K., but we were on the verge of needed a nap in the near future. When we got to Rapallo, we found the hotel easily as we've been here before. We don't have a view of the Mediterranean like we had last time, but our room is lovely and easy on the legs as we take the stairs up and down. Getting to the room we settle in for just a bit and then head down to their fabulous pool. It is a beautiful day but we thought we'd nap there. Good plan. We laid in the shade so we didn't burn during the nap, but had a few snacks by the pool and enjoyed the day just resting and soaking the the gorgeous scenery. About 6pm we decided to come in and get ready for dinner. We looked at Trip Advisor, but everything kinda looked the same, so we thought we'd just walk into town and figure it out when we got there. As we approached one of the restaurants, we decided by all the people sitting outside we'd give it a go. Then we realized we had eaten there a few times before!
Guy had a local meat tray for a starter and pear ravioli drizzled with a balsamic reduction. I had some kind of pasta that looked like big tortellini stuffed with something green and delicious in a walnut sauce. I also had a side of grilled veggies. I looked at the dessert menu and there were about 5 items I'd have loved to have eaten, but Guy suggested I get some gelato on my first night in Italy. I agreed. Then later we forgot that we didn't have cash because our safe wouldn't open and we headed out for dinner with only a credit card. Oh well, I knew there were M&M's in the room and that was all I needed to finish off a pretty perfect meal. (On a note about the safe not opening...the guy at the front desk said to call him when we got to the room and he'd open it for us remotely. Yeah, so he did. Not sure that is the most secure felling...but oh well.)
So we are both ready for bed as day 1 and 2 have kicked our behinds. Tomorrow we were going to hike Cinque Terre, but apparently all the hiking areas are closed but one. The Concierge gave us some good advice on the train/boat/hike/train scenario that he thought would be best, but I'm going to set my alarm and try to get a run in before breakfast just in case there is no hiking tomorrow. Guy just said the high is supposed to be 82. That sounds pretty awesome! Blogger is being weird and the font seems huge, but it's late and we'll worry about that tomorrow. Good Night from beautiful Italy!
No comments:
Post a Comment