Arrival

I'm ready for the plane

First, the good news. The trip to the airport and check-in was easy. Lovely Delta agent got us settled even with all the luggage. We could check 2 bags each, the carseat and the carry ons plus the stroller at the gate which we did. We easily found our seats...Economy Plus...near the galley which were worth the extra dollars though the noise of chipping at the ice was a bit disconcerrting to Rider. Hooray, we were settled, the plane loaded and ready for take off. Wait, one small problem!

Evidently each plane must have a required medical kit and our fully loaded plane was missing said item. Now Betsy and I are thinking it should have been an easy fix as there was a plane at the next gate which wasn't scheduled out for an hour and borrowing would have solved the problem BUT that would have been too easy. Instead we waited for one to arrive from (probably) Outer Mongolia which took another hour. Rider remained cheerful and sweet as he made friends with fellow passengers that he hadn't already charmed in the gate area. Unfortunately the additional time on the ground put the baby into the suicide hour when little ones go from "everything's A-OK" to overtired and unable to be soothed. I discovered that he doesn't cry but instead morphs into Mr. Wiggle Worm. Neither his mother nor I could seem to soothe him and he desperately needed to fall asleep. Sparing the gory details, the first couple of hours of the flight totally made us rethink the entire notion of taking an eight month old on a trans Atlantic flight.


He finally fell asleep on his mother and we all slept fitfully for the next few hours awakening with about two hours left to touchdown. Amusing him with plenty of "puffs", bottles and assorted other food items plus playing peekaboo with the nice people behind us helped survive the last bit of air time. Betsy and I were so tired that we dissolved into giggles thinking about the explosion that was bound to happen when all the variety of food and drink ( most of which he had never tasted before) worked it's way through his system. We were thankful when the inevitable occurred that there was a changing table in one of the plane's bathrooms. He had extra clothes in the carry-on but Betsy never thought to carry extra clothes for herself and she endured a damp dress from the excess of liquid he consumed and that the diaper couldn't absorb. Note to moms: take extra clothes for yourself.

                                                                                               

       

Some of the luggage!

Landing was uneventful, passport control likewise and we were thrilled that the shuttle I booked was available and, after a thirty minute wait, took us directly to our hotel. The stroller was a godsend and Rider made many Italian friends before we got to the hotel.

                                                                                           

Arriving at the hotel

To our delight, Hotel Sonya is directly across from the Opera in a convenient section of Rome. The hotel staff has been more than accommodating, the room lovely and we count ourselves lucky.

Great staff at Hotel Sonya

              Upon arrival at the hotel around 10:30, we were told that the room was not ready but we could leave the luggage and that the room could be prepared within an hour. We took the time to walk the three blocks to Termini train station to pick up the Roma Passes. Point of interest: there are no signs to tell one where to find the information desk and it is difficult to find someone with the directions. We finally asked a shopkeeper and she told us near Track 24 which was at least in the general vicinity. Passes were retrieved, we checked in the hotel, had short naps and took a "walk about". Why is it more fun to walk around in foreign cities when one parks as close as possible to the store at home to avoid walking?


                                 

Nearby piazza

 So, it was time to learn another lesson about traveling with a baby. You have to constantly think about when the child is going to fall apart and schedule your life accordingly. Since we were hopeful at that junction that Rider would actually go to bed at his normal hour, we searched for a place to eat a light dinner. First of all, Roman restaurants aren't even serving at 5:30. Most restaurants open at 7 pm and the ones that do are trolling for unsuspecting tourists that don't know about local customs and will pay anything to eat.

We kept looking for a place that had patrons who were not speaking English. Finally we gave up as time was of the essence and spent a fairly large sum of money for one small pizza, a small portion of spaghetti carbonara (not as good as my recipe), a couple of breadsticks, a bottle of water and (this was worth it but overpriced) a bottle of "ok" red wine. Then it was time for two tired optimists and a rambunctious small boy to contemplate going to bed. That occurred, at least the going to bed. Downside: Rider had no intention of sleeping in the port-a-crib. So ,after trying all the usual tricks, we put him in bed between us where we tried to stay awake and he rolled around and finally slipped off the bed on to the marble floor with a resounding thump. Luckily there was a bag of clothes exactly where he landed and he was unharmed. At that point, we seriously contemplated finding him a nice Italian home!

We think we ultimately slept about 5 hours and he slept about 6. So far, he's pretty much worn us out. If he wasn't so darn cute...

Today was a special day at the Forum and Coliseum but that tale must be saved for the next blog. Ciao.

Daddy Time before Takeoff