I am not sure that a day could be any worse than today...at least not a first day of vacation.

On the plane, we were in what my best friend described as "steerage." We could not sleep because we could hardly move. Our knees were almost touching the seats in front of us. The food was good, though.

And then we landed in Paris for our layover and to change planes...

We taxied for over 15 minutes, only to be let off on the tarmac in the rain. We were shuttled by one bus over to a building where we had to go down a U-shaped corridor to que up for a second bus. After another long ride of being treated again like a sardine, we had another long line for "Passport Control." I suppose this was France's way of being cautious, but we were just changing planes. That line was hot and cramped and lasted nearly an hour. We had to interpret the grunts the man at the window gave for instructions. Then, with our plane leaving in less than ten minutes, we had to run through the airport to stand in yet another line to go through security again. We actually made the flight...only to discover that it was a plane with no air conditioning.

By the time we landed, we were punch drunk, got talked into a "shuttle service" to our hotel, and risked our lives in the process. All for the bargain price of 35 euros. The "service" turned out to be a guy with a car who believed that 150 kilometers was a sedate pace. He dropped us approximately 8 blocks from our hotel with a specious excuse about the road being closed. We were so sweaty, hot, and tired by the time we actually found the hotel, that it was nearly unbelievable to learn that all of Italy shuts down air-conditioning after mid-October! It didn't matter that heat makes me ill. There were no window units, no fans. Everything was centrally controlled. And then...while trying to contact the travel agent, the hotel gave away our room.

We sat in the lobby of that blasted hotel for over six hours, alternately crying in frustration, falling asleep from exhaustion, and trying to figure out what to do. The travel agent, appalled at what happened, found us another hotel. We couldn't get through to a taxi service because of the rain, so the travel agent sent someone from work to ferry us over to the new hotel. We were quite thankful for that kindness, but we had to wait another hour for him to arrive.

So, after landing in Rome at 10:00 in the morning, we arrived at our hotel at around 7:00 in the evening!

Why did we come to Italy?