Airports and Churches

It seems to becoming a habit for us to have a bit of a drama at the beginning of each trip. The first flight of our Italian tour was an evening one, and i had thought I would have a relaxed day getting through those last minute things – the trouble was that everyone of those last minute things took twice as long to do as expected so by late afternoon I was a little fraught, and it didn’t help that I’d got my times mixed up and left things later than I should have done before we finally leave for the airport. The pressure was on because the schoo had given strict instructions that Liam was to be at the airport for the school trip checkin by 5.50pm. We made, it, just….

Simon stayed and had dinner with us in the airport – which was sooo much quieter at that time of night than it usually is. Thanks to Owen’s gift of Express path passes we were able to skip ahead of the queue at Passport control and wandered out to the gate. I chatted to a couple of Liam’s teachers who just looked happy that they had sheperded their charges to the gate wthout any problems.
I’d been haunting the Expert Flyer website in the days before our trip as I had an empty seat next to me and I was hoping it stayed that way. unfortunately there was a body in the seat when we boarded he plane, and more unfortunately he was one of those people that believe they are not only entitled to the entire armrest, but are also entitled to sticking their elbow into you for hours at a time. A very, very unhappy baby spent half the flight makings its feelings publice so we didn’t have a particularly restful tri on the flight to Dubai .
A first time in Dubai for us, golly it’s a big airport! 5am in the airport and the air temperature outside was 32 degrees, but it’s pleasanty chilly in the Marhaba lounge where we spent our 3 hours layover. This is the first trip where we’ve been able to use Neil’s priority Pass which gives us free acces to a variety of airport lounges worldwide. After our flight I was seriously tempted to a nice cold glass of wine but at 6am that seemed like a bit too much of a self indulgence. Fortunately the cappucino and pastries were nice 🙂
The flight to Rome was another 6 hours, we arrived in Rome spot o time but the debacle at passport control was an interesting introduction to the less organized style of the Italians. I will NEVER complain about LAX or Heathrow again. A huge mob of people descending on 3 officials checking non-eu passports, no queues set up and a couple of officials sitting idle in the EU-entry queue – made for a slow and uncomfortable arrival. However, once we sqeezed through and found our bags we were greeted by our transfer driver and whisked in to town to our hotel.
He only spoke abut 3 words of English and said nothing till we passed the Porta San Paolo, where he named it for us. I wracked my flight-addled brains for something to say and remarked “Vechhio?” ( Old?) He broke into a huge green and said “Si! Si!”, When we passed the palatine Hill he said “Palatino!” and I doubled my efforts with “Molto vecchio!”, so he tried hard and came up with “Yes! Si!”  , I got some more bronie points when I told him I though the Colosseum was “Meraviglioso!!” , so he was pretty pleased with us by the time we finally got to the hotel.   It was such a thrill when we drove past the Colosseum and the Forum ( which seemed to be liberally decorated with scaffolding – half of Europe seems to be covered in scaffolding in our experience!) The drive through the narrow cobbled streets, dodging motor bikes, pedestrians and the odd planter made me very pleased that we hadn’t decided to drive in Rome at all!
Our hotel is in a fabulous location, the Pantheon is 2 minutes walk one way and the Trevi fountain 5 minutes walk the other. The building dates from 1787 and the corridors wind around obscure corners and up odd half flights but the room is cool, clean and quiet with, joy of joys, a kettle and tea-making facilities.
We just stopped long enough for a quick wash and change of clothes before hitting the cobbled lanes for a tour of the historical centre. 
This afternoon was a succession of visits to piazzas and churches. There are more than 900 churches in Rome and we only saw a fraction of them, but I was taken by the amazing variety in style and atmosphere and tourist popularity (!) of the ones we saw. 
The Pantheon is the oldest, built by Marcus Agrippa in Ancient Rome as a temple but converted to a church and used as such for the following 2000-odd years. It was packed to the eyeballs with people. A succession of tourist groups, following their leader like sheep as he brandished his stick and flag, listening carefully to his shpiel via the headsets they had strung arund their necks. But despite that you can’t help but be amazed at the amazing building that has survived INTACT for that long!
After that we wandered into the Church of St Ignatius of Loyola, with its brilliant trompe l”oeil ceiling,, the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva , the Church of Santa Maria Dele Valle, and the Church of Sant Agostino. These were all beautiful and so much more tranquil than the people-stuffed Pantheon. Each left a different impression of colour, from dark, glorious blue in Sopra Minerva to glowing gold in Maria delle Valle. The tiny little Sant Agostino was almost empty of people so we had Caravaggios stunning “Assumption”, painted on the side chapel, all to ourselves!
The Piazzas, like the Piazza Navona,  were all buzzing with crowds – admiring the founatins ( which all seemed to have been designed by Bernini…)  and eating gelato. We haven’t tried it yet but if I saw one person blissfuly licking a loaded cone today, I saw 1000! 
We wandered away from the tourist trail in some of the backlanes nearer the river and it felt like we’d entered a different dimension. Here we had the cobblestones to ourselves ( I LOVE the cobblestoned streets, and find myself wondering how old they are) so we could admire the greenery trailing down the walls from planter boxes and roof gardens.
Back to the hotel for a rest and then we hit the streets again for the Passegiata and dinner. The Italians just love their passegiata, their daily evening stroll after the heat of the day. We found a little restaurant between the pantheon and the Piazza navona and tucked into a simple but delicious meal of bruschetta and pizza and the house vino bianco. It was just what we needed!
We were surprised that we lasted till 9.30 when the jetlag hit us and we crawled into bed. Another busy day to come!