Monday, November 9, 2009The 5am wakeup came early, and Davis arrived in the dark and rain at exactly 5:45am to whisk us the airport. The hand-talking was even more pronounced as we sped along the abandoned pre-dawn highways of Rome, now that he was comfortable with us!
We were very early for our 10:20am flight, mainly to allow Davis to get back into Rome before rush hour. Searching for a place to sit for an hour while waiting for the ticket counter to open, we settled upon a row of seats at the end of the Departures area.
Julie first noted the smell. There were several people sleeping on the seats that we initially assumed were weary travellers.....but apparently were actually homeless people with a lot of stuff in large backpacks. The next thing we know the situation descended into chaos.
An American couple had apparently offered food to one of the homeless men when they awoke. He kicked it across the room and started yelling. He was HUGE, with a beard nearly down to his waist and a decidedly sour demeanor. Suddenly this old Italian man appears, half the guy's size and twice his age, and starts yelling back at the man.
Of course, we have no idea what they are saying. The man actually comes to us and attempts to enlist our support.....bu the best I can do is tell him in Italian that we don't speak Italian and don't understand. Next thing we know, they are threatening each other from across a narrow rope line. That's when things got interesting. Julie dubbed it the Roman Bum Fight.
With all of the tourists now huddled in in th corner in fear, the little old man retrieves an umbrella and proceeds to the threaten Man Mountain Transient....who responds in kind by whipping him with a dirty sweater. A pitched melee ensued right in the airport, umbreall vs. sweater, with heate and rapid Italian discourse for punctuation. Eventually (and I mean EVENTUALLY) airport security wandered over, and then the Carabinieri showed up with their submachine guns....but they basically all stood and watched the entire affair!
In the end we carefully walked away, skirting delicately around the fracas, at which point security and the police left too!
By now the ticket counter was opn, so we checked our bags and passed over to the other side, finally getting actual stamps in our passports! We had ample time for some duty-free shopping, securing a cliche bottle of chianti in a wicker basket, along with a gift pack of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
We boarded the plane a little bit late, with some lineup chaos involving several flights from the same general gate area....and then SAT on the plane for nearly two hours. Apparently they pulled someone OFF the plane for security reasons....requiring them to pull off ALL baggage to find this person's ONE bag. Given the delay, they decided to allow 35 unscheduled passengers on board, all missionaries with some international organization. Of cours, these people boarded a nearly full plane and then wanted to all sit together, and began actually negotiating with passengers to move seats!
Once actually IN the air, the 9.5 hour flight was relatively uneventful, though sleep simply did not happen. Luckily they were pouring red wine freely, and feeding us constantly, so we touched down happy in Toronto around 4pm Eastern Standard Time.
One final snag awaited us - after a smooth luggage pickup and shuttle to the park'n'fly, the battery on John and Julie's CRV was dead. We had to flag down other weary travellers to help us out with a boost. Finally, we were on the home stretch.....first to John and Julie's to pick up our car, then home.
Once we arrived in Ilderton, we quickly threw our stuff in our car, and after quick washroom breaks and good-byes, we continued the drive home to Wheatley, walking in the door around 10pm EST to four very annoyed cats. Of course, our bodies thought it was 4am the next morning (Italian time), so we went pretty much straight to bed, our heads filled with two weeks of fond Italian memories.....
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