Catching Up

Things are looking up fellow travelers. The hotel wi-fi is up and I bought a SIM card for my phone which I will test drive shortly. Here is my post, written in the wee hours this morning:

My trip halfway across the world went pretty smoothly, but I'll share some details nonetheless. I can see this will be a too-long post as it is, so I'll start after I transferred airlines at JKF airport in New York, itself, a rather hair-raising experience. We pick up when I boarded my Alitalia flight . . .

The seat assignment on my boarding pass bore no resemblance to the seat I had carefully reserved by phone the other day. It was a window rather than the aisle I preferred, but that was OK. For me, it's a toss-up as to which is better on a long distance flight. On the aisle, you can get up whenever you want, but you are plagued by people brushing past you all the time, and you've got to stand whenever the middle and window seat people want to get out.

I settled into my window seat happily enough, only to discover that half my underseat storage space was taken up by a metal box affixed to the interior wall of the plane. How dare they take up some of my precious allotted space with what, some pesky airplane hardware? Sighing, I crammed my backpack down there, taking up half of the middle seat's underseat space as well. I sat there fretting, hoping I would not end up with a seatmate who objected. A few minutes later, I was joined by an Italian mom and daughter. The daughter, probably early teens, took the middle space. Luckily, she didn't have anything to stow, so she didn't seem to mind my bag. However, she instantly lowered her foot rest, effectively caging my bag in and making it largely inaccessible. Oh no! All my backup entertainment was in there! I stewed further. Meanwhile, the safety video came on. It alternated giving the information in Italian and then in English, and I noticed that the Italian versions lasted about twice as long as the English translations. I couldn't help but wonder if the Italians were getting critical information that the rest of us weren't (“there is only enough oxygen for half the passengers, so be sure to press the secret button on your arm rest”).

All in all, however, the flight went well. The daughter curled her legs up and fell asleep and I was able to wrestle my bag out and dig through it. I fell asleep for, I think, 2 ｽ hours, and I watched a movie on my iPod, so the time managed to pass. Upon arrival, I found the right baggage claim and my bag came around within a few minutes. Then it was a long trek again on a circuitous route to find another train platform. Here, I found a long line to buy tickets, but there was a self service kiosk and I watched over someone's shoulder for awhile to figure how it worked. Still, when it was my turn, it took me several tries before I successfully bought a ticket to Roma Termini, the main transportation hub in the city.

There was more confusion figuring out which train to get on. This I shared with a Jamaican guy from London who was also mystified. We made our best guess and got on together, figuring if it was wrong, we could join forces to backtrack. It turns out we had guessed correctly and 30 minutes later, we got off the train at the busy Rome station and went our separate ways. More confusion ensued while I tried to figure out which direction to walk but I finally worked this out. My hotel is only about a quarter mile from the station, so I walked there easily enough, got checked in and took a much needed shower.

It was then I discovered that I was having a total electronics meltdown. My cell phone is not connecting to any network here (I have traveled internationally with this phone before with no problem) so I could not call home to report my safe arrival. No, problem, I'll fire up my netbook and send an email, but guess what, the much-touted hotel wifi is down with a repair date unknown. The office guy let me use his computer (somehow the office still has connectivity but the guests don't) to send a message home. I'm thinking the cell phone situation may be hopeless – I can only guess that they switched off my international roaming permissions without telling me. To get this changed, I would have to go through employee channels which are unfriendly enough when you try and do it from home. From afar, I can't log on to the company network from this computer, and I can't call on my non-functioning phone. My current plan is to buy a sim card from another carrier to use for the duration of my trip. Sorry AT&T, but you left me high and dry!

After all that, I got settled in my room and then went out to get the lay of the land. I charted a walk that looped me around some main streets and returned me to the hotel. I detoured to the Trevi Fountain which was mobbed, but I found a bookstore with English language books and – oh happy day – an internet cafe. If the hotel wifi situation isn't fixed, at least I've got a backup. Near the end of my walk, I found a non-intimidating restaurant and had a lovely meal of bruschetta, salad and vino rosso.

I was operating on close to no sleep, so I got back to my hotel and fell asleep in short order (about 6pm local time), waking up a few times during the night. I woke up for good about about 4am local, so here I sit, writing this post while watching international CNN.

These photos are of my room and surroundings. Stay tuned for a sightseeing update soon.