EVEN WITH ALL OF OUR FLIGHTS departing and arriving on time it took twenty-one hours to go from Omaha to Atlanta to Paris to Florence. And it almost didn’t happen!
Amber, our Delta Angel
John thought he had everything under control—the flights were booked, AirBnB in Italy confirmed, on-line Italian health and immigration forms completed and Covid tests scheduled. He even had the negative results printed out but it seems the rapid Covid tests at Walgreens are not the PCR tests approved for travel to Italy. With the help of Amber at Delta, the skilled driving of “Omar the Kenyan Kabby” and the staff at Kohll’s Rx Pharmacy we made it back to the airport in plenty of time for our flight and a well deserved drink at the airport.
Test Negative—Stay Positive (Wine helps!)
Our AirBnB is on the third floor of a 13th Century tower. There’s no elevator and the 54 stairs to the main floor seem to get steeper after each landing. It requires another 17 to get to the bedroom and if you are energetic enough you can climb the 8-steps to the loft/bedroom for a great view of Florence. Thankfully, Lapo and his dad Marco met us at the flat and helped us with our bags. They weigh in at 50 pounds (22 kilos) each so while Connie and Marco trundled her bag, Lapo and I followed with mine.
The final flight to the Bedroom
At first glance Lapo’s flat has everything we’ll need for a couple of weeks. The kitchen and bathroom are modern, the wifi is pretty good, the water is hot and the air-con works fine. TV is all in Italian, of course, but who cares. There is a Carrefour grocery just around the corner, plenty of places to eat and we are only ten minutes from the Duomo.
Bedroom and Loft
We were able to claim an entire row each on the Atlanta-Paris flight. Connie was asleep before we took off but John waited until he could stretch out before conking off. Even with the comfortable bed last night we’re still groggy so Florence will have to wait a bit.
