It's Always Something...

THURSDAY NIGHT, MARCH 26 - FRIDAY, MARCH 27

We noticed that we seem to have a great time IN the cities we visit, but a hard time getting OUT of the cities we visit:  the bus ticket Nazi in Florence, almost missing the plane back in Madrid in 2011, we've got a list.  And getting out of Rome to come home was no exception.

As I write this, I'm sitting in Business Class relaxing on a plane we almost didn’t make and waiting for it to take off for Philadelphia.  Let me recount our final evening in Italy.  It’s a long story, but there is even a punch line, which isn’t too bad. 

Spending our last day hiking up Vesuvius and visiting the ruins of Pompeii was wonderful and chock full of ancient history.  We enjoyed a pizza with our fellow tour attendees & Gene & I had our final gelato before getting back on the bus to Rome.  We arrived back at the apartment at 9:30 with packing still in front of us.  Gene was miserable tired, plus had an upset stomach and touches of diarrhea. 

At about 10:30 pm, the unthinkable happened and Gene spent about 5 minutes in the bathroom hugging the toilet, giving up everything he had eaten during the day.  He said “I guess that’s what I needed; I feel much better” and proceed to help me finish up the packing and seemed quite well.  We lost time during this incident and didn’t get to bed until about 1am with the alarm set for 5 am, so we could keep a desired leave-for-the-airport time of 6:00am, but we figured we’d sleep on the plane.

At 2:30 am, the unthinkable happened.  Again.  Swore he felt better, but how can we take a 10-hour flight if he’s gonna be throwing up every 4 hours?  We debated the pros and cons of staying an additional day:  there were no pros, there were only cons, especially the part where we would be stuck in the middle of  2 separate rows, 10 rows apart for a 10-hour flight.  Gene kept swearing he felt okay, just weak, tired and dehydrated and we decided to give it a go.

And at 6:30 am nothing happened.  He appeared to be done with the unthinkable (and it became clear, he was).  But other events decided to play havoc with us:  we got on the express, high-speed “Leonardi” train to the airport at 6:30 am and sat there with all the other people while absolutely nothing happened.  We finally all got off and all the other Italian-speaking passengers started to make a run for it.  We were hauling 2 bags each and Gene just could not go fast.  He was worn out from the events of the past 6 hours and could barely go at all, but we figured out there was a replacement train at a new platform and joined the crowd.  We were left in their wake because the new platform was easily a 20-minute walk from the old platform & they could go fast and we couldn’t. 

Finally, we were in sight of the doors to the train AND THEY STARTED CLOSING!!  THE TRAIN WAS GOING TO LEAVE!!  AND THE NEXT ONE WOULDN’T COME FOR ANOTHER 20 MINUTES!!!

At that point, Gene had a bit of a meltdown and bellowed:  “HOLD THAT TRAIN!!  DON’T YOU DARE LEAVE!!!  WE WERE HERE 40 MINUTES AGO.  I SAID HOLD THAT TRAIN!!!”  And he kept bellowing as doors kept closing down the line just feet before we reach them until finally, we were able to catch up with the closing of the doors and make it onto the train.  Gene bellowed all the way down the platform.

Perhaps they were planning on holding it anyway knowing that the walk from the original platform to the new one was a hefty hike, perhaps he did indeed scare them.  Perhaps you heard a rumble in your house this morning and wondered what it was.  It was Gene, in his best baritone, not mumbling one bit, clear as a bell.  And we made the train.

We got to the airport and figured out that we then had to take a shuttle to a different Terminal to check in.  On the shuttle we chatted with other folk who were obviously American and off to different towns and who were also on the Leonardo and also had to run for the new train.  So I said “Did you hear the crazy guy who yelled?”  And they all went “oh man, yeah.”  And I got to point at Gene with both pointer fingers and say “here he is.  Right here.”  And actually Gene got an applause from the crowd.