We're here

Well, it took us long enough, but we finally got here.

We arrived at JFK early, probably sometime around 5:00 PM, but ended up having to sit on the tarmac for a solid 30 minutes because things were stacked up for some reason.

We finally met everyone at the Delta baggage claim, and managed to get our single checked bag pretty quickly with no problem. Then we all got on shuttle train and headed over to terminal 4, the international terminal. We checked in at Eurofly, and Dad managed to get all of our seats pretty close. We took up an entire row (8 seats) plus an additional 3 seats two rows further back.

The plane started taxiing out right on time, and then, after about 10 minutes of not moving, the pilot got on the intercom and explained that we wouldn't be taking off for "maybe an hour, maybe longer."

We finally took off around midnight local time, about 2 hours and 15 minutes after we were scheduled. Of course, that meant that our arrival in Rome was late, but the driver that Renee arranged was waiting for us at the airport. Poor guy. There were actually two drivers, Massimo, who is the husband of Francesca, the woman Renee made all the rental arrangements through, and another guy who drove a big van.

Nicole, Dylan, Jan and I all piled into the car Massimo drove, and the other seven travellers got into the van and they followed us to the apartment.

We got to the apartment around 4:00 PM or so, and Massimo explained to us that the bags in the hallway belonged to the people who had the place before us. He told us all about the apartment, and let us know how to get around the local area. On the drive over, we passed right by the apartent building that Jan and I stayed in when we were on vacation in Rome in 2000. This place is maybe a 10 minute walk. Small world.

We didn't do a whole lot because we were pretty tired. Massimo had to go to the airport to pick up another renter, and he told us he wouldn't have a lot of to give us much of a tour, which was really no big dea.

We asked him where there was a good place to get gelato, and he pointed us down the street. He also recommened a good restaurant, l'Isola che non c'e, which literally means "the island that isn't there," but is an idiomatic translation to Peter Pan's "Never Never Land."

We walked for the gelato, the walked around the area a bit to go to the Vatican. We wanted to try to find Jan's co-worker, but we left the instructions for how to get tickets for the canonization in the apartment our bags.

I walked up to one of the Swiss guards, and asked him if he knew how to get tickets for the canonization. It turns out that he was the guy who had them, so he opened up a small cabinet next to his guard shack, and pulled out a stack. Best of all, they were free.

After checking out Saint Peter's square, we walked back to the apartment and freshened up a bit. After a long overseas flight, nothing feels quite so great as a nice shower. When I was in the shower, Dad turned on the tv and said he saw something about a "terror plot" a JFK. Which was why we were delayed taking off Friday night.

We went to the restaurant Massimo recommended, which was great. The folks there didn't speak much English, so Jan and I ended up doing most of the talking. But there were very nice folks, and the lady that ran the place, who I assume is the owner, convinced us to have some dessert. The way she convniced us was to point out that she made them.

We went back home, went to bed, and slept pretty soundly through the night.

We woke up this morning to pouring down rain. Terrible weather. I'll try to post soe details about today tomorrow. I'm mostly over jet lag, but I'm still recovering a bit. But by this time tomorrow night, I should be all caught up.

Speaking of which, I'm accessing the net through my cell phone. Very very slow. This apartment doesn't seem to have wireless, or if it does, we didn't get the right info on how to hook up to it. At least the places down south should get us connecte a bit better.

Local time is around 11:30 PM, and we're going to try to get up early to beat the crowds to the Sistine Chapel tomorrow morning, so bed is probably a good idea.