May 26, 2015: Traveling Rome to San Diego

We knew it would be a long day today but it turned out to be even longer than planned.  

I felt MUCH better this morning and was ready for solid food.  The breakfast is in a rooftop room on the 7th floor and the view was incredible as it was a sunny day in Rome.

 Eggs with bacon were brought to you at your table upon request.

The buffet has the usual breakfast foods we've been having.

First time I saw dispensers like these

We were scheduled for transportation to the airport with two other couples from our tour at 9 am. Steve and I headed down at 8:40 and when we got to the lobby, they were there along with the driver.

We took off after loading up and it was a pleasant drive to the airport.  That's where the fun started.  

Oh my, what a process the Italians have created to fly!  We first waited in line for a US Airways desk where all the representative did was swipe our passports, put a sticker on them and give us a plastic bag for our electronics.

Then we walked around the corner to wait in the US Airways check-in line to print boarding passes and check our bags.  After that, it was a line for security which was VERY long.

When we got through that, we went through passport control.  Then got on a bus to the building with the gates.  We had a very short time to use the restrooms and buy some water before it was time to board the flight.  When we went down the stairs we found another bus out to the plane.  

Finally, we were on the plane.  When everyone was loaded up, we were told there was a 30 minute delay waiting for final maintenance paperwork.  That ended up taking over an hour.  Then we had to wait for a takeoff slot.  Once that happened, we were in line to take off for 30 minutes.

Yes, we left Rome 2 1/2 hours late and knew our connection would not be possible.  The flight was not bad for 9 hours.  I watched four plus movies (Kingsman, My Old Lady, Cake, and Belle).  I say plus because I started Birdman but could not stick with it.

We were served lunch pretty quickly once airborne.  We both selected pasta which was penne in a vegetable marinara.  It came with a roll, butter, crackers, soft cheese, and a caprese salad.  Dessert was a apple cake of some sort.  Everything was good except for the salad.

Beer and wine were complimentary with the meal.  Later during the flight we were served pretzels, ice cream (very good), and then the snack.  The wrap in the snack box was awful.  I took one bite and put it down.  The coconut snack cake was very tasty.

When we landed in Philadelphia, US Airways staff members were directing people with connections before 6:30 pm to the right to pick up new boarding passes.  We had been automatically rebooked to the next flight to San Diego leaving at 8:55 pm.  They even got us seats together.  

We continued on to the kiosks for immigration.  It was very easy and quick.  We got a paper print out with our picture and passport info that we then took to the next line.  The immigration officer stamped our passports and took our customs form. 

We then got our bags and customs took the print-outs from us.  Next it was to bag drop-off station.  I can't recall when we went through TSA security.  I know we already had our new boarding passes because they were stapled together and the TSA agent made us come up separately and I had to tear them apart (not friendly TSA agents at Philadelphia!).

We found out gate and the first thing I did was call our transportation company to arrange for a later pickup.  After that we each selected what wanted for dinner (Chinese food for me and Popeye's for Steve).  I picked up a Starbucks mug for my brother and Steve went looking for the Dunkin Donuts we'd passed.  Unfortunately, he wasn't paying attention to the signs and walked right out of the secure terminal area without his ID!

The good thing is that he had his phone and called me.  I had to gather our carryons and meet him with his ID so we could both return to the "safe side".  He stayed pretty close to our gate after that. :)

The plane left about 30 minutes late due to late connecting flight crew.  We were seated in a row with another person but since the plane wasn't full he moved up to another row with only 1 (at the flight attendant's suggestion). I slept a good three hours of this flight and before I knew it we were home.

I had a text from the driver upon landing.  Once we had our bags, we were off for a quick trip home and walked in the door at 1 am.  The trip was great, but it felt wonderful to be home after the long day.