Final Thoughts

*  Rome Airport makes getting on a plane one of the more stressful experiences of any vacation.  You go through the same steps:  check your bags, get your boarding pass, go through security, go to your gate.  It took us about 20 minutes at Sky Harbor.  It took us almost 2 hours in Rome.  Fortunately, we left ourselves enough time -- and Gene's bellowing helped to get us to the airport on time as well -- to manage all the steps.  You have to take ALL your electronics out of your carry on and put them all in plastic bags to go through security.  And "electronics" meant plugs, cables, headphones, power strips, Gene's Magic Jack, tablets, anything with a wire.  We had about 8 bags by the time we got through pulling everything.  And the security table sent the various carry ons through X-ray at the rate of about 1 every 2 minutes or so, rather than the 30 seconds or less I've seen at other airports.  We were about 5th in line.  It took us close to 15 minutes, then of course, with all the electronics we had, we got pulled for further inspection and then it took FOREVER to put everything back into our carry ons and then we had to take a shuttle back to our departing Terminal.  We arrived at the airport at 7:15 for a 10:35flight.  We finally made it to the lounge to relax before the flight at 9:05.  oy.

*  They don't pinch anymore in Italy.  Once upon a time, if you're old enough to remember, men used to pinch the bottoms of woman they passed as a way of flirting.  One of our guides told me that the woman got tired of that and armed themselves with long sharp straight pins.  And if a guy got too close to them on a subway or a bus or in public, they got a stick in the rear but good.  And apparently, the custom died off.  I am strong, I am invincible, I am woman, I guess.

*  For kicks and giggles, I watched "Three Coins in the Fountain" on the plane coming home.  What a laugh.  A very bad 50's movie to be sure, but what made it funny was that, for instance, the heroines decide to go visit Trevi Fountain (and btw, no photos on the blog because it's dry and under repairs right now).  And so, they drive down the alley, turn right and PULL UP RIGHT NEXT TO THE FOUNTAIN!!  where there are only about 3 other people there.  They throw a PENNY into the fountain, get back into their car and drive away.  In another scene, I recognized Vatican square and it only had about 20 people milling around the square.  Totally empty.  All I know is if you took a right turn to pull up in front of Trevi Fountain, you'd take out about 100 tourists -- mostly Asian -- in one fell swoop.  But amazingly enough, the shots of Rome neighborhoods and piazzas and squares still looked the same in 2015 as they did in cheesy 50's movies.