The final leg....

Day 16: Tuesday August 28
This morning, we lounged only a little bit, then a quick gourmet breakfast of Black bean and cheese quesadillas and then off to Sacile to begin our trek to Rome. Ryan dropped us at the train and with 15 minutes to spare. We made our train to Venezia and then bought our tickets to Roma there. We arrived in Rome at 4pm.

While on the train we checked our Rick Steves book and picked out the Beehive Hostel for our nightly accommodations. We called while on the train to make a reservation and found they had room at a shared condo called Clover…cute huh?? We checked in, got our key and walked about 10 minutes to our room. It was very near the train station in Rome’s Chinatown. Nice place!! It was the deal in Rome.

From there we started our tour of Rome. First to the Basilica of St. Mary de Maggiorre and then on to the Forum and Coliseum, we were walking fools. It was near sundown and we still had the Trevi Fountain to find. Up some hills and down some cobblestone streets and up one more hill and we happened upon an amazing view of Rome at sunset. Some of our best views and experiences have been on the tail of mistakes.

Well, we wound around a few more streets and found the Trevi Fountain. Beautiful, wish you were here!! Kind of beautiful. Then at the threat of chewing off Dorothys arm, I said we had to find sustenance. Somehow, all the cute street side restaurants disappeared and all we found were cars, buses, traffic and no food. AAAarrgh! Well, FINALLY, we happened upon a restaurant and I sat down and refused to budge until I had wine. Just kidding, but only marginally. We ended up having a nice meal for our last dinner in Italy. It was topped off with an accordion player strolling through the place playing something lively and Italian…who could ask for more??

While walking home satiated from our meal, we decided to stop at the train station and check it out for morning and buy our tickets in advance…aren’t we just the seasoned travelers? Low and behold, the book store is open and Dorth finds a book for the trip home. She later discovered that she paid $18 for the privilege of buying an English book at the train station. Such a deal!! But at least we got ripped off one more time as we bought fruit and a bottle of water for morning for only another $16. Such entrepreneurs these Italians!! But c’est la vie!! Ooops, wrong language.

Back to our room (the best deal around) for a good night sleep and an early get up. Yawn, full day and lots of adventures.

Day 17: Wednesday August 29
The final day of our trip started out beautifully. Great weather, good night’s sleep and yummy fruit that must be made of gold…☺

We got to the Rome airport without any glitches. Dorth and I kinda said goodbye and we’d call each other from the states to rendezvous in LA. We weren’t sure we’d see each other once we got through security and stuff. But, as luck would have it, we met just inside near the duty free shops. I took Dorth to the President’s Club or whatever it is called there. I then found out that my flight was delayed one hour and I would actually leave a few minutes after Dorothy. We spent an hour and a half eating, drinking coffee and relaxing. Nice way to travel. When we went down to the gates, we found Rhiannon again and caught up with some of her travels. Amazingly, Dorth had gone online at Ryan’s to pick an aisle seat for the trip to DC. When Rhiannon pulled out her boarding pass, she was sitting NEXT to Dorth. Do, do do do…very twilight zoney. So I said goodbye and I’ll see you in LA and off I went to my gate.

Well, as luck would have it, one more time☺, I got First Class and traveled to Newark in style. I am so blessed!

When I reached Newark, I had 32 minutes to get through customs, back through security and find Marty and make it to the flight to LAX. Somehow I made it with 8 minutes to spare. Marty came running up (both of our flights were late), and we boarded the plane with a huge sigh of relief. I hadn’t seen Marty in 6 weeks so it was a great coming home and welcome home all at once.


When we finally landed in LA, Dorth was 30 minutes behind us so we picked up the car, swung by and got Dorth at United and drove to the LBC. Our timing has been incredible the whole trip and apparently lasted until the last leg home. It’s great to be home.

Somehow, no matter where we go and how fabulous the trip is, I always love the feeling when I walk in the door and know, I’m HOME. Sigh......