Travels In Europe
Playing Tourist In Rome
The flight goes north east, over Canada, Hudson Bay, Greenland/Iceland, Scottland, and down the spine of England to London. Much of it was in the dark. Arrival time in London was about noon. Heathrow is not an impressive airport. British Airways (BA) told me here that I would arrive at terminal 4, and the connecting flight would be from terminal 2. So I wait in terminal 2. With wonderful organisation, BA does not announce which gate a plane leaves from until 20 minutes before it leaves. 30 minutes before departure for Rome, they announce that the monitors have broken down, and listen for announcements. Twenty minutes before departure, and still no announcement. Check at one of the counters, and they tell me it's leaving from terminal 1! This is just the other end of the same building, but still I have to rush. Then, of course, although there are many empty gates, the plane is actually sitting out on the tarmac, and we have to join a bus to get to the plane! Not an impressive introduction.
The flight to Rome was over France, Switzerland and the Alps. The view was quite enjoyable. Arrived in Rome, and the immigration people just waved me through - didn't even want to see my passport! Fortunately the signs are in Italian and English. But it was quite a surprise to see armed guards - with machine guns - everywhere. And Rob was just outside the customs area. We catch a taxi into the city, and the hotel where Rob has been the last few days. There is some confusion over our rooms - Rob thought we had separate rooms, the hotel didn't. We shared, which is OK. It took a couple of days before my sleep habits returned to normal.
We stayed at the Hotel Morgana. It is just two blocks from the main railway station, which was handy, as we planned some train trips. Basil Fawlty would not have been entirely out of place in the hotel. We had a phone which didn't ring (we eventually found out). And the cord to the handset was so short, that it lifted the phone when answering. The TV's remote control was in pieces (I eventually decided to put it back together). We couldn't turn on the bathroom light - it turns out we didn't wait long enough. There is one switch in there, but the light does nothing for several seconds before blinking into life! And there is a cord hanging down in the shower. (This turns out to be a bell, to call help if needed). The water temperature was variable. The hot water was hot enough, but the cold was sometimes not much cooler. The shower and toilet were at one end, raised up above the floor. As Rob said, "This gives a whole new meaning to being on the throne." But it was clean, and not too expensive. We had the one room with a "balcony". This meant we had a window onto the street, and it was quite noisy. [Note the web page says it was upgraded in 2004, so the above comments may no longer apply. It seems the general policy with Rome hotels is to slowly degrade and then have a major overhaul!]
Travels In Europe
Playing Tourist In Rome