6/20 - Coming Home from Rome

These last couple of blog posts are mostly for me. I don't expect a whole lot of people to have any interest in the little bits and pieces of flying home or post trip reflection. However, I find them to be an important part of the process of travel. 

Returning home had its ups and downs. Some of them in the plane. Turbulence on tap air Portugal is a thing to be dealt with.  I don't know whether they're smaller planes but definitely smaller than a lot of what I've flown on the "spoil me constantly" experience of Virgin Atlantic.

Flight from Rome to Lisbon was about 3 hours, we departed at about 2pm and lost an hour but arrived to the gate at around 4:40 local, which means we had under an hour to get over to the next flight. 

In the rush I left my forensy bag in the plane. I was in the emergency exit seat and they made me put my under the seat bag in the overhead for lunch and landing. So when I got out I forgot to check for my second bag that I had put up in the overhead. 

This piece is going to cause me a world of consternation in my reflection piece. 

6/20 - 8:17am - Rome

Today is Anika's birthday and - other than the day she was born - this will be the longest June 20th in MY live, at least.

Clover & I just sentt a video happy birthday to An. She's at Craig Springs finishing up week 2 of her summer job as being "on staff."  

She got her life guart certification, has already painted the ceiling of Central's gift shop (I think that's what she said - either that or it's the room beside the gift shop), and has started taking responsibility for the pool chemical checks.  Maybe she can teach me that one day.

Today will be the longest June 20th because Clover & I will be getting on the Airplane in Rome at 1:15pm Central Europe time and we will not land until 5:45 Eastern (US) Daylight time.  (with the 6 hours time difference added).

We are sitting in the lobby of the Rome Hotel & the Beatle's "Let it Be" just came on the radio.  I have loved the radio we've heard in Italy.  Teh stations play a variety of songs from English, Italian, French, and probably other laguages that I haven't been able to follow enough to recognize te languuage.  I'm ure I've heard Spaanish songs.

We will be leaving for the airport soon.  I just finished postitng the blog from Pompeii.  I'm still late on Capri, though.  Think I will upload the pictures now and add in text as I have time along the day. (which I just finished after 2 days back home)

Da Vincci Airport

Lunch:

• Clover - Sandwich & juice
• Cat - Caesar salad (microgreens, chicken, really good olive oil with basalmac for dressing) & Iced Cappiccino

1:38pm Rome departure

Clover & I are separated on the flight again - it's a short one, but we're probably also in different seats for the long flight over the Atlantic to Dulles.  

Lunch at Da Vinci airport was lovely.  I particularly liked how they used micro-greens for most salads in Italy.  The texture & flavor is much better than the default Romaine lettuce we usually have in the states.  II remember when Romaine was the "new" thing.  Before then we'd mostly been used to icebert - and we never really thought about it.

I think most people are pretty wel done with the pace we've been keeping.  The air travel home is comparatively relaxing.  

Waverly, Campbell & I are on the emergency exit now.  I didn't realize there was a requirement to have all luggage on takeoff & landing put in the overhead compartments for tthis now, it is nice to have a little more leg room.  Last flight over they had te whole row empty because they were asking for an extra fee to move people into the row (for the extra leg room).  It was a bit cramped to get our carry on bags into the overhead bins, but iin te end it worked out fine - just had to play some Tetris.

While TAP is a bargain airline, it is actualy pretty good about being on time.  The food was not horrible on the first set of flights, just there was a llot more small kids than usual on an International flight.  (this one was not filled with so many children)

I've been up since 5-5:30AM - stuck in the habit of earrly rising after a few days of needding to be on the road by 7am.  It's now 2pm local - not sure why the delay, but I wasn't listening carefully to the announcement.  It's not much delay & maybe is factored in.  About ready to crashs out here shortly.  We're taxiing onto the runway now.

8:10 pm - Italy Time - Good dinner.  Rice pudding is excellent!

Post France-Italy reflection

Things i miss

Instant Cappuccino, breakfast prepared for me, breakfast that involves a healthy fruit, cheeses, yogurt and whole grain cereals.

All the amazing, fascinating discoveries of every day.

The price of First World made linen clothes in Italy.

Things I'm grateful for at home

My friends, my cats, the quiet in the morning except for Amber's very loud purring and meowing for me to wake up.... Waking up with my cats but not having to run.... Feeling like I have summer vacation and now it's time to start thinking about what I need to do around the house.

Things I looked forward to

Seeing my boyfriend... Seeing my friends... Being able to share the little gifts and tidbits that I picked up for some, though being very aware that I spent a lot more on things for myself this time.

Luggage fiasco

This is my fault.  I allowed myself to be rushed, I was tired, and I just forgot about my second bag I needed to grab.  I left it in the overhead bin and now I've tracked it down through the airline, but they said "You need to pick it up at Lisbon Airport.  <jaw drop>  I say "I'm in the United States, I can't." and he says "Well I guess it's gone then."  And I ask "Can't they ship it to me?"  He says "It was not a checked bag, they don't do that with carry ons.  

Thankfully Jeff got me a link to a company called DeliverBack - and I've submitted a request to get the bag picked up and shipped back.  But it's going to cost me dearly.  But that will hopefully cost less than replacing all the items.  Of course, it's not possible to have all the items replaced since several are souvenirs.  And the cothing items I'd put in that bag were not the cheap amazon knock-offs.  I put a lot of my souvenirs in my checked bag - especially the heavy books.  Next time I WEAR what I don't want to lose.

I've been home two days and Jet lag is still with me.  I woke at 2 am Monday and now I'm ready for a nap (nearing 7am).  I will adjust eventually, but I need to clean up my house and Anika's room so my mom can stay with me this week.

Will update with what happens about the DeliverBack request for my luggage to be picked up & shipped back.  I was honestly surprised it was so easy to get the code for my missing bag. All other phone calls I made to get information about pickup location, etc. were met with hostility from the airport itself. I called DeliverBack immediately after placing my order and they were very polite - based out of Greece apparently. I hope everything goes well. Not much I can do - and the longer it takes the less likely I am to recover the bag.

6/26 - Message from DeliverBack this morning that they are unable to obtain the bag & ship it back to me.  They have refunded my order request.  I'm very sorry this is the outcome.  I do believe they did what they could.  My own attempts to call & speak with the lost & found at the Portugal Airport met with constant ringing or rude hang-ups.  I was absolutely the most polite I could have possibly been with each contact.  The fact that i was able to get the item number for my bag seems like a miracle of rolling the dice for the right person picking up my phone in the first place.  There is apparently no motivation for lost & found people there to be helpful unless you come to them in person.

My thoughts return to the moments of purchasing the items of personal value in the bag.

The woman at the clothing store who kept bringing me alternative items after I'd pulled out the white shirt with flowers on it.  I loved that blouse - i could have bought several in her shop.  But that one was what caught my eye as we walked by on the tour, gave me reason to snap a photo of the store, and track the shop back down with Clover when we had free time later.

The ear rings from Pompeii.  There was SO much expensive in the cameo shop!  LOL  Then they had small items that were ridiculously cheap.  But the ear rings were in the middle - still so much more than i pay for Jewelry, but i had been looking for a replacement for my silver sea star earrings with turquoise pebbles for a long time - these were exactly that.  The owner of the store said he couldn't take credit -or it would cost more.  I think they are avoiding tax.  When I withdrew money from the ATM he gave me a discount and one of the little red horns "for good luck" - i was going to give that to Sam, along with the magnet from Pompeii that made me think of him.  Those were what I was bringing back to him - and now i have nothing.  That makes me sad.

It's not the loss of things.  It's the loss of what they meant that makes me sad.  So I'm remembering the moments here, to keep them & hold them in my mins so I won't forget.

6/19 - Sorrento and Capri - OMG - ALL THE BLUE!

 6/19/2024 - Capri Excurion today - leaving from Sorennto and returning via Napoli. 

Post from yesterday was pretty special - I included most of the text from what I was writing as we were going along. I took a lot of notes on Pompeii then inserted the picture later and added the bit about the Cameos (which I'd typed, but lost when I didn't save I guess).  Only the evening comments were added later because I'd crashed at 10pm and we needed to be on the road by 7am for the Capri excursion.

Today (Capri - which is actually yesterday when I'm writing, but I'm going to write in present tense because - artistic license *smrk*)..... Today I sat back and enjoyed the day.  Taking pictures and a few notes in my journal.  But realy very few.

8:45am - Getting ready to take the boat to Capri from Sorento.  It's a gorgeous day - clear skies and the sea is blue - that's actually the Mediterranean.  The cliffs are high in Sorento and the buidings are either built into the cliffs themselves (bar at the bottom) or on their crests - mostly hotels.  Homes are built back off and away from the ledges.  

The cliffs of Sorento (not unlike the "Cliffs of Insanity" for Princess Bride fans) are dolomite Limestone formed from "Carbonate platforms" that were formed in the Tethys Sea by coral reefs between 200-65 MYA, at which time the meteorite impact kind of did a number on all ecosystems on the planet (summarizing what's in the link).  

By looking a the beach, you wouldn't realize the rock above would be white or limestone, however.  The beaches are thick with a very fine grade black basaltic sand.  I didn't collect any because I didn't bring any thing to the seafront that would have been a good collection container (and while the shoreline was litered with trash where we were able to access <the picture above being private beach that was inaccessible to the public> none of the trash was container-like).  Basaltic (magnesium & iron) sand is formed from deep mantle lava that was ejected by one of the nearby volcanoes (possibly Vesuvius, but possibly others - the link says this series of volacnoes is called the "Apennine chain").  Shallow mantle laval will form a lighter colored granitic silicate sand like we have on the East Coast of the United States.

Shrine of Mary at the turn in the road

Clover and I walked down to the beach last night before sunset and walked around for a bit.  There are rounded pebbles of many colors.  Grey, brown, black, cream, white and some orange.  Clover pointed out that the orange ones are terra-cota.  I'm glad they mentioned it because I would have been wondering what those weird, low-density orange rocks were.

Statue of St. Antonio Abate - he is the patron saint of Sorrento  

On the cruise this morning our group sits in a comfortable sleepy silence while much of the group engages in their chatter.  The boat has better acoustics than the hotel restaurant last night.  It was LOUD!  The kids were talking as normal, but the acoustics seemed to be amplifying the noise of others in the space so the details of conversations could not be heard, just noise - which was made worse by everyone speaking louder to compensate for not hearing their own voices or those of friend across the table.  It was a true caccophany of human chatter.

Here on the ferry everyone can hear their neighbor and if one listens carefully, one could easily evessdrop on several different conversations and different distances around the boat.

Clover and Mrs. Baker are trying to get sitting-up naps.

Just offboarded.  Waters so clear all fish can be seen to the bottom!

We are on a second boat, out to something beyod the Caprisi main doock.

The water is sapphire - it's just different depths of saphire - dark-medium-light-foamy white.  In Cornwall it's because of the phytoplankton - that may be here as well.

Our tour guide is talking through teh speakers, but I can't understand much through the engine, waves and wind.  There are yaghts in the bay, just sitting.  It does feel like we're in "The Talented Mr. Ripley."  We get to live vicariously for a day!

I think the artists try to capture bluess in a painting of an ocean -- but I'm sure they're greatly frustrated.  A picture is only a shadow of what is real.

I hear her say "The Green Island" and volcano - I thought I heard "dolomite."  It is left from the collapse of an extinct volcano?

We stopped for lunch to get Sushi - though I doubt the salmon or tuna are anywhere local.  We choose to spoil ourselves.

Salmon Tartare

clover's sushi

My Salad is with smoked salmon today

We love this shop with Bells.  There was a story about why the symbol of Capri is the bell - or why it is important.  Brain is finally saturated with anecdotes from all the places we've been on thtis trip.

Last day to get Gelato from Italy!  Clover got one of the giant frozen lemons with lemon gelato - their lemons are AMAZINGLY HUGE!

We didn' swim - but - yeah - gorgeous beach!  Small - but gorgeous!

the joys of lemon!

Flowers here are gorgeous & just jump out at you from the sides of the mountains!

Back on tha mainland - we return to Napoli.  I'm sure they're trying to get in as many locations as possible to wet one' appetite for a return trip.

It will be a 3 hour drive back to Rome for our flight tomorrow.  I love seeing the landscape.

5pm - One minutet I'm looking at the Poplars - those tall, umbrella-like collossi forming sentinels across the landscape of Italy.  The next it is mountans again. 

The sky.  The sky is the same at home.  The blue-white, the gray coudss rimmed with silver.  I can almost see the couds turniing into rainbows as the sunlight refracts through the edges.  Clover doesn't see - I'm sorry for it.  The clouds at home will be different ones.  The sky connects it all, the waer moleculess touching and connecting all around the world.  Closer - farther - pushing, pulling - the energy connects & flows - unites us all.

White Cows - I'm sorry this isn't any more clear.  It was just fu seeing white cows when we don't see herds of them i the states.

Dinner at the hotel in Rome - Lasagna here is so good The noodles are thin and I just love getting all the carbs at the end of a day.

I ALMOST had a single tonight.  LOL - But Mr. Bartlet generously traded so Clover & I can share the larger bed & Clover won't need to share the student rooms.

Looks cumfy though, doesn't it?