Italy and Croatia

On Wednesday morning we got our luggage and our driver took us to the Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in anticipation of our flight to Chicago where we would connect on American to El Paso. After nearly two hours on line to check our bags we were told we were in the wrong line! We then went to where we were supposed to check in and no one was at that terminal to accept luggage. I jumped to the front of the line for Newark to ask about the Chicago flight and was told it was in the process of being canceled due to the strike!

We then proceeded to the Alitalia ticketing area where there was a horrendously long line. Each person who got to the counter needed 20 minutes or so for the agents to find alternative arrangements. Alitalia was forced to cancel a great many flights due to the strike. This was Wednesday morning and there were people on line with us who had been trying to get out of Rome since Monday.

After about 90 minutes on line it was finally our turn and the best they could come up with was a flight to JFK in the afternoon, several hours after our original flight was scheduled to depart. The problem with that arrangement, of course, was that I was due back to work the next day and this change would necessitate missing another day. Our route would take us from Rome to JFK, JFK to Washington, DC where we would stay overnight and then in the morning take a flight from Washington that stopped in Atlanta and continued to El Paso. I insisted they provide me with some kind of hotel voucher for Washington since we would be forced to be there overnight due to Alitalia’s problems. They agreed.

While waiting to board the JFK flight I told Viv we actually dodged a bullet in that we were not on Alitalia from Chicago to El Paso, but American. They were not really obligated to get us anywhere but Chicago. Still, they provided us with ticketing straight through to El Paso.

That flight was delayed and delayed. Finally the plane at that gate vanished without anyone boarding! We thought we were never going to leave. Finally they announced that the plane was boarding but there was still no plane there. It turned out that when we got to the bottom of the jetway we got on a bus that took us across the tarmac to a larger Alitalia plane. We got on the plane and eventually took off for JFK. About the only thing I can say positive about the Alitalia plane and service was they had a seat-back video screen and remote control that allowed you to choose your own movies to watch to pass the 8.5 hours of time.

We arrived at JFK with precious little time to spare for our connection to DC. We breezed through customs remarkably fast only to find out that we would have to recheck our bags at Delta which was located two terminals away. We raced with a luggage cart across the airport outside and made our way up to the ticket counter at 8:40 PM for a 9:00 PM flight. Delta told us it was too late to take our bags. We didn’t really care as we could get them the next day. However, they also told us it would take more than 20 minutes to clear security and get to the gate so that there was no way we could get on our flight to DC. Thank you, Alitalia – you’ve screwed us over once again!

The people at the Delta counter were not very helpful. He offered flights via JFK the next day that wouldn’t get us back to El Paso until 8:30 PM on Thursday. That seemed ridiculous when there was an early flight out of Atlanta. Everything out of JFK earlier was apparently booked, so he offered us a 6:55 AM out of LaGuardia connecting to a 10:56 AM in Atlanta. Sold!

We then left in quest of Alitalia to ask what to do about a hotel voucher since what we had said Washington on it and not New York. Unfortunately their last flight out left at 8:30 PM and there was no one at the Alitalia desk.

We headed off to find the hotel courtesy phones and there was someone at the desk for a hotel reservation service. While he was telling us our options I saw a woman walk past in a green jacket that looked like an Alitalia uniform. She confirmed she was from Alitalia and said if we took the van outside the door to the Holiday Inn then they would put us up for the night as long as we had an Alitalia document. I got my credit card back from the hotel guy and out we went.

Unfortunately, there were about 30 people on line ahead of us in a van that took perhaps 8. That meant there would have to be 4 iterations of the van going to the hotel and returning before we got there. That would take about 30 minutes for each iteration, so it would be more than 2 hours before we arrived and by that time there was also a possibility they would be out of rooms since they had about 400 people on this flight.

I went back into the terminal and made arrangements for a Clarion Hotel near LaGuardia. They had a free shuttle to the airport for the morning, so we hailed a cab and off we went to New York’s other airport. We got to the hotel about 10:30 PM and after begging them to keep the kitchen open long enough to get something to eat we managed to get to bed around midnight for a 4:00 AM awakening.

In LaGuardia we were practically strip searched because the great many changes in the itinerary and tickets looked suspicious and we were singled out for extra scrutiny. We got on our flight to Atlanta and arrived on time. We found the gate for the connecting flight, gave the gate agent our paperwork and even got the bulkhead seat with some extra legroom. Everything was finally going well.

Or not.

They changed the departure gate for the delayed flight so we trotted off to find it. When they called our group number to board the gate agent wanted to know where our paperwork was. I gave him the boarding pass. He said he needed the paperwork that accompanied it. I told him it had been given to the gate agent in exchange for the boarding pass. How else could I have gotten a boarding pass for this flight? Our passports matched what was on the boarding pass. He was adamant.

Viv took off in quest of the last gate agent while I stood there to raise hell with him. Everyone had already boarded and still we weren’t on the plane. We were going to miss this flight, too. I finally convinced him to let us board but now Viv was missing in action at the other gate. He called down there and was about to page her when I saw her. We got on the plane and finally made it home.

There are some poison pen letters going both to Alitalia and to Delta about the way in which they mishandled things.

All in all, however, it was a wonderful trip.

On Tuesday morning Chris and Sue accompanied us to Herculaneum. We were going to venture there by train, but negotiated an acceptable price with a taxi driver to take us straight from the pier. The ruins there were covered in mud from the sea when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. Herculaneum was a seaside resort for the wealthy. You can tell by the opulence of the artwork that was recovered fairly intact. Our decision to visit the smaller site of Herculaneum first enabled us to bypass the crowds at Pompeii by purchasing a combination ticket for admission to both sites. We had the entire place to ourselves when we arrived about 8:30 in the morning and got many wonderful pictures.

When we left we stopped for a cappuccino at a café and then walked down to the train station which took only about 10 minute from the entrance to the ruins. We got up onto the train platform and saw the first train said it was headed to Sorrento. What we didn’t know was that Pompeii was on the way to Sorrento. We had asked some people if that was the right train but were specifically told it was not. They were wrong.

We started talking to a man on the platform who was from Italy but lived in Germany for 7 years. Sue spoke enough German to communicate with him and he kept us entertained for 30 minutes until the next train arrived.

We entered Pompeii and bought these audio guide handsets that looked like a cell phone. You would get to various places in Pompeii, punch in the number of the location where you were located and the handset would then give you the history of that site. If you used the audio guide for the entire 4 square mile site you would likely need 3-4 days to see everything. We just had about 3 hours to spare before having to return to our ship docked in Naples. Pompeii was also covered in the same eruption in 79 AD, but being closer to the volcano it was buried under ash instead of mud. That did not preserve things quite as well and we agreed that Herculaneum was actually the better of the two sites to visit despite being smaller.

Since pizza was invented in Naples we were determined to enjoy some before we left. Unfortunately all we could find was in the cruiseship terminal. It wasn’t the best we’ve ever had, but it was indeed memorable.

We packed our bags in preparation of leaving, went to our last dinner and then all agreed to meet at the champagne bar for a final drink since we may not see anyone in the morning as we were all on different schedules for departure. We had heard that Alitalia was on strike, but we went online at the ship’s Internet café and neither Alitalia nor the airport had any information confirming problems.

On Monday we had our final day at sea. This time all of our tablemates took turns in a shuffleboard contest. Viv and I won for the couples match and the men won when paired off against the women, too. We spent most of the day relaxing and reading.

About 7:30 we arranged for our cabin steward to straighten up our room while we ordered platters of cheese, fruit and crackers along with tortilla chips and chili cheese dip for a pre-dinner cocktail party. We squeezed eight people into our cabin and opened up our boxes of chianti smuggled on board from Venice. We all laughed a lot and had a good time.

After dinner we saw the dancers from the night before doing their salute to Motown. It was an audience participation thing with people singing along, clapping and giving them a roaring ovation. It was one of the finest performances we’d seen anywhere, including both Vegas and New York.

On Sunday we reached Dubrovnik, Croatia. The Dalmatian coastline on the Adriatic is stunning. By comparison, Croatia is much cleaner and less hectic than Italy. Although Split and Dubrovnik were the country’s second and third largest cities (after Zagreb) you wouldn’t know it compared to the craziness of Rome or Messina or even Florence.

We took a tour that first brought us to a family farm where they made olive oil. They showed us the old fashioned method in which a horse was used to pull some heavy stone discs that rolled inside a stone bowl to crush the olives. The crushed pulp was then transferred into a large coconut husk baskets that served as a filter. Hot water was used to help extract the oil from the olives and then two men used a large oar-like device to rotate the olive press to squeeze the oil from the pulp. When the process was finished, the olive oil was left to sit for a few days to allow it to separate from the water.

After showing us a little of the farm we were invited inside for a snack. Kings should eat this well! The snack consisted of large platters of prosciutto, cheeses, hot peppers and olives, along with a large green salad and freshly baked bread that was dipped into olive oil. He also gave us new wine which, though a little harsh, completed what a regular Croatian farmer would enjoy. They did, of course, try to sell us a few things – olive oil, herb liqueurs, grappa and wine.

From there we went to the Milos winery where the local grapes are the actual root stock from which California red Zinfandels originated. We were told about the history of winemaking in the region, toured the cellars and then sampled some of the lower end red and white. In this case the white was far better and I used up my remaining Kunas (Croatian currency) to buy a bottle. That one we checked with the security personnel who would return it to us the night before we got off the ship.

We then ventured over to see where they grow oysters, mussels and process sea salt. It was a short drive from there to a restaurant on the bay in Miliston where we were served a lunch consisting of a seafood risotto and a seafood pasta as well as salad and fresh bread. They put wine, water and sparkling water at the table, too.

When we returned to the bus, many of our fellow passengers figured out an alternative method to checking their wine purchases when boarding. They obtained a corkscrew somewhere and proceeded to drink them on the way back. Needless to say, they were a happy bunch by the time we returned to the ship.

The show that night was called Absolutely Fab, a revue of British pop songs of the 1960s. It was terrific.

After dinner we went up to the Viking Crown Lounge to dance a bit until they started playing some Michael Jackson music. Then everyone departed to allow the dance floor to be occupied by the gentleman who would later appear in another show called Soul Satisfaction. They were fantastic on the dance floor and we thoroughly enjoyed watching.

On Saturday we returned via shuttle boat to St. Mark’s Square to see the Doge’s Palace which also included the prison underground (from which Casanova escaped) and the Bridge of Sighs which gave prisoners their last glimpse of beautiful Venice. Cynthia and Tony had signed up for the secret tour of the Doge’s Palace which included trap doors and a great more detail than the general public got to see.

We had purchased something called the Choral Pass that entitled us to see more than a dozen churches scattered throughout Venice. It was unbelievable to walk into a small church and look up on the wall to find a painting by Rubens or Tintoretto or other renowned artists. These churches are not just museums, but the active houses of worship for the local Venetian community.

While getting lost we stumbled upon a flea market in one of the historic plazas. Here people were selling their own personal goods and antiques to others who lived there in Venice.

Upon leaving there we found a supermarket catering to locals. In it we spotted one liter boxes of chianti. We knew the ship x-rayed packages coming on board the vessel for both weapons and bottles, but we thought we could sneak these in my carry on bag since they were just cardboard. I’m pleased to report we didn’t wind up in Royal Caribbean jail and managed to get past the checkpoint with our illegal booty.

This evening after a wonderful dinner in the dining room we went up to listen to the karaoke finals. People were only semi serious about it and we had a great deal of fun listening to the bad acts.