A friend has a great saying that I've quoted on this blog many times before, "It's not an adventure until the first thing goes wrong."
Well, this case, the first thing went wrong about 12 days before our trip to Rome. Air Italia up and cancelled our direct flight from Dulles to Rome, and we had to scramble to book a semi-affordable flight.
I was assured we would be able to fly United direct from Dulles to Rome, so problem solved. Or so it seemed. Realizing the paperwork never came, I followed up. Well, it turns out United wanted an arm and a leg to cover the difference between the Air Italia ticket and the United ticket.
We scrambled, looking at other alternatives. Most of the other alternatives to fly to Rome weren't palatable at all because of the cost.
I went to Carol and said we should take a Swiss Air flight through Zurich, but instead of leaving Monday after the November 2024 election for a Tuesday late afternoon arrival, we opted to leave Sunday for a Monday late afternoon arrival.
That meant we needed a hotel for one night before we could get into our Inspirato apartment. We also didn't want to lose basically all of Tuesday traveling, especially so we could get our daughter, Julia, and our friends, Maria and Van Meredith, checked into the three BR apartment before late Tuesday.
Carol saved the day by finding a great, well-located hotel on Expedia (dot com!). They upgraded us to a larger room at the Martius Private Suites Hotel, a short walk to the Pantheon and other highlights of Rome. As John "Hannibal" Smith used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together."
An extra day in Rome is no small thing, as it is a big city with much greatness to take in.
