This is not the best beginning, but perhaps, given the poor start, it can only get better.
We left Pittsburgh on December 19. I forgot my naughty nightie on the back of the toilet: apparently the fact that cleaners were coming after our departure escaped my mind! But we remembered all the children, their back packs, the car seat and all ELEVEN bags.
We were ahead of a snowstorm and were confident that we would get to Philadelphia - that hub of lost luggage and late takeoffs - and be on our merry way. But it wasn't so! US Airways neglected to schedule a pilot for our flight. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Pittsburgh airport, while very nice, is actually quite boring.
The flight was cancelled in the end, as the flight had been delayed too long and the snowstorm arrived.
We faced a choice: Try to find our luggage and a taxi big enough to carry us, go home to a cold and empty house with no food and cars in storage; OR, gather said luggage and trudge to the Hyatt next to the airport, wait it out and hope of a flight the next day.
We chose the latter.
Of course those four paragraphs do not even begin to describe the indifference of the US Airways personnel, the difficulty of dragging 400 pounds of luggage and three children through an airport multiple times, the frustration of hearing poor advice from US Airways over and again! But there is more in that vein which I will tell later.
The next day, I chose to get the first flight out of Pittsburgh, to try to be the first people to get out of Philly. I hoped for this, but I made reservations at the Philadelphia Marriott, just in case.
Our 7 a.m. flight was delayed until 2:15. And when we got to Philly, all our bags were missing. And not just our bags. All the bags on our plane. And not just our plane: by the time we headed over to the Marriott (because US Airways also gave away our international seats!!!!) we had heard that US Airways lost four Pittsburgh to Philly flights worth of luggage, plus the luggage that was supposed to be on the Los Angeles to Philly flight. Can you guess how long the line to claim for baggage was?
I couldn't tell you, since I took the children to the Marriott to check in. But Marriott had its own trouble: since so many flights were cancelled due to the storm, people were refusing to check out! So we couldn't check in! We went to the bar, where poor Andrew, my angel baby, fell asleep on the floor under our table, while Helena and William got their first real meal of the day.
Three hours later, I tried checking in again. William, with a terrible head cold, had the most spectacular nose-bleed in the middle of the Marriott lobby. I have never been checked into a hotel so quickly!
The night went downhill from there. The luggage wasn't found, the kids were exhausted and so were we. What should have been Day One in Rome was our second day stuck in an airport.
It took two days to find our bags and we finally flew out on December 23. US Airways business class is fabulous. Everything else is crap, but business class was great.
We landed in Rome on Christmas Eve, and it should have been a magical experience. But our air shipment was also missing in action, and we were heading to a deserted villa next to a castle, with no food or dishes and Christmas was coming: In Rome, all the shops close at around 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve. They stay closed through Christmas and St. Stephens' Day (the 26th). Most shops are also closed on Sundays, which was the 27th.
We had dogs arriving in two hours and three hours until the shops closed!
So Bill stayed at the villa with the kids, and I raced with Francescamaria, estate agent of the year, to the local Mercatino di Cinzia, or kitchen store. Where, I am certain, I was gouged unmercifully to make up for poor sales earlier in the year, while buying odd lots of mismatched and ugly dishes.
All told, I purchased five forks, four butter knives, five spoons, four tea spoons, a corkscrew, three wooden spoons, a can opener, a toaster, a tea pot, an iron, five plates, six bowls, six plastic cups, three tea cups, two coffee mugs, a pot with a lid, a saucepan and a salad bowl. The grand total? 500 Euros, or $719.49. None of it matches, the toaster doesn't work and the corkscrew broke the first night.
But the food here is wonderful. The grocery store, though well picked over at 3:30 on Christmas Eve, was still full of things that we dream of in America: fresh fava beans, still in the shell; four kinds of prosciutto; cheese from heaven, and wine. So far, the best bottle we have tasted was a friuli with the unlikely name of Villa Dolt, but it was amazing. And the shop was full of it!!!
Christmas here is a lengthy event that begins on December 1 and lasts until twelfth night on January 6. There is a saints name for that day, too, but it is also called Epiphany. Italians mark it with a festival and they all take the day off work. Given the number of Saints Days, I think the Italians and Catholics are in cahoots: this is a great system of getting a three day weekend!
The Italians also have a strange Christmas Witch called Bafana, who gives children presents on January 6. All the same, it's pretty odd to see a witch on a broom hanging in every shop at Christmastime.
We took the children to Piazza Navonna to see the Christmas festival there. When Frommers calls the festival 'Down at the heel," they aren't joking! It's a melee! You can't walk, there are no lines, and there is way too much junk food to wire the children to high heaven. But Helena and William enjoyed the antique carousel; Andrew was too frightened to ride. They each got a huge stick of candy floss (cotton candy) and loads of chocolate. We tried some cake, but found that cakes, in Italy, appear to be like cakes in England: sweet.
I never knew until England that sweet was a flavor, like chocolate or vanilla. In Europe, it seems, sweet is a substitute for flavorings that Americans consider standard. In our chocolate cakes, you still add vanilla while making the cake. Here, a white cake is just flavored with sugar. Then frosted with dark chocolate. Andrew loved it!
After the sugar rush wore off and we figured out trains versus taxis, we got down to the everyday life in our villa.
The Princess has not yet arrived, nor have any other families in the other villas. We have seen the helicopter fly every day, so we are assuming it's being kept up for either bringing the Princess home or going to get her soon.
It is important to let people know that living here, in many respects, is like living in Pittsburgh. I have errands to run. Diapers to change. Trash to take out (thought that is different here, as there is no garbage collection). Laundry to do.
But the food is different, perhaps infinitely better, and instead of driving to Ross Park Mall on the weekends, we can take the train to Pompeii. Which I think, will be our first venture beyond Rome.
Photos will come soon!
