Thursday......a quick trip back to Boston!

Thursday was a tough day.  My ride for the airport was scheduled for 11:45, so we really did not have enough time to do very much in the morning.  We lazed around and had breakfast.  I double-checked my packing…….and went over to the main office to pick up the boarding pass they had printed for me.  Before we knew it, we saw the Mercedes van pull up at the front gates.  The driver (owner) was Claudio.  He was a very nice guy……with a bit of English……which worked fine with my limited Italian!  It was a huge car…..but very comfortable.  It was just a bit out of place in the world of mini-cars in Rome.  We made it to the airport in about 45 minutes.

fairly quiet at the counter

the inevitable passport control line

la boca de verta.......just like we had seen in Rome!.....now starring at the airport!

the crew climbs the stairs!

a daily ritual!

The lines at the counter and at security were not bad, and I got through fairly quickly.  I was totally surprised by the size of the airport beyond security.  It did not look anything like where we had arrived on British Air.  The commercial shopping area was overwhelming……..and they made you walk through it all like a Macy’s department store!  I grabbed an espresso along the way to keep me going!......and eventually found the Alitalia lounge.  It was modest, at best, but gave me a chance to grab a few things for lunch.  I read the New York Times and before long, an hour had passed.  I headed to the gate and crashed into my seat.  The ‘buckets’ in business class were not quite as nice as British Air, but no real complaints!

The flight took off about 20 minutes late due to thunderstorms over the airport…….no problem waiting as far as I was concerned!  During the course of the flight, they made some of the time up.  It went fairly smoothly and I got a lot of work done.  I tied into the in-flight wifi and was able to send out a lot of email to the office.

At Logan, things went very smoothly due to Global Entry.  The problem was that I had to wait 20 minutes to get my bag! Then I trucked out to the limo lot and found the driver.  I was getting a bit foggy at this point……so the drive home went quickly.  It was nice to see the house, although it had been very hot the past couple of days and the air was very stuffy and warm inside.  I cranked up the AC and left the doors open for a while.  I also checked out the greenhouse and gave it a good soaking.

I attended to the chores and shifts in luggage…….and packing of things I was tasked to bring back, then laid out my clothes for the morning.  I was pretty tired and after a bit of work on the computer……..fell asleep around 11:00.  On to the next day!
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Meanwhile, back in Rome, Andrea was hanging out with some of our new friends.  In the afternoon she went to a 'Shop Talk' with a woman artist, Abigail DeVillars........then went to the bar for prosecco with Jamie, Rahm, Sasha and the gang.  Dinner was with the same group......a fun time with lots of discussion.  HB got to bed before I did!