Another 11-hour flight, another night with virtually no sleep. I didn’t expect that the flights from Sydney to Rome would be fun and I was right. We were both very, very tired by the time we landed. But thrilled to have made it to Rome. We arrived at 7:30am, Rome time. But our bodies were totally out of sync. We were basically in a daze. Marlene had a headache, undoubtedly due to lack of caffeine. I had a full bladder, having avoided the bathroom on the plane for a full 11 hours. We were both very happy that the customs process at Rome was quick and painless. And that a bathroom was available before we got to customs.
A word on the route taken from Chengdu to Rome by Sichuan Airlines: we avoided the Ukraine. The shortest route would have taken us right over Odessa. But when the plane got to western Kazakhstan it turned south. We went south of the Black Sea, over Turkey. I was happy for that detour.
I had booked a shuttle from the airport into the city. So our first task was finding the shuttle meeting place. We had to haul our luggage to the next terminal, but found the spot. And found the guy organizing the transport. I paid him for the 10am trip (it was not quite 9am then) and he told me to be back at 9:45. I found Marlene, just a short distance away, and we were killing time when, at 9:20am, I got a phone call from a Rome number. Since phone calls cost 25 cents per minute for me while in Italy and I didn’t know anyone in Rome, I ignored the call. But the same number immediately called again. It was the shuttle guy, demanding to know where I was. The shuttle was waiting for me! I told him I had a 10am shuttle. He got quite angry, insisting that I had booked an earlier shuttle. I didn’t argue. We hustled down to the meeting spot and he escorted us to the shuttle van.
In 30 minutes we were deposited at the door of our hotel, which was a pleasant surprise since the shuttle service had advertised “door-to-door service at an additional cost.” But that pleasant surprise was immediately followed by a very unpleasant surprise: the hotel was undergoing renovations. Memories of our unpleasant hotel experience in April in Anchorage came flooding back. Marlene wanted to walk out without even seeing the room. I didn’t see that we had much choice as the hotel was included in the flight/hotel package and was already paid for. We were both jet-lagged, very tired and could easily have had a nasty fight. But we didn’t. Instead we walked to Vatican City.
Along the way I found my shuttle reservation email. 10am. The shuttle guy had no right to be angry with me.
Vatican City. Unbeknownst to us, 2025 is a “Jubilee year” for practicing Catholics. I am not quite sure what that means to them, but what it means to me is that the roads to St Peter’s Square were packed with pilgrims. Tens of thousands of pilgrims. Probably over 50,000. We got close enough to see into the square, but were unable to get closer. Instead we walked to the Tiber River. Along the way we found a church (the Parish of Transpontina) that was one of the finest we have ever seen. But in Rome, a city filled with magnificent churches, this one barely rated honorable mention.
We took some photos of Castel Sant’Angelo at the river but didn’t go in. Then we walked back to the hotel to check in. The good news was that the room had been recently renovated and was clean. The bad news was that it had no microwave and no coffee machine. And the hotel had no coffee in the lobby. We were both in need of caffeine. But we were more in need of sleep. We slept.
I woke around 6pm, planning to go out for a bite to eat and some coffee. I was unable to interest Marlene in either. I went back to bed and we both woke up around 5am with raging caffeine (and jet-lag) headaches.