Five hours later, we landed in Rome and once we had disembarked, we had to take a shuttle train to the main part of Fiumicino airport. I was surprisingly still quite chipper, considering we had been travelling for about thirty hours, but Wayne was looking a little flat. We had slept a bit on each leg of the flight, but I doubt it was for more than about 30-45 minutes each time. We went through customs, but our luggage had been checked-through to Catania, so we didn't have to pick it up yet. Then there was another long walk to our boarding gate - about 20 minutes all the way the length of the airport. This exercise felt quite good, as we had been sitting on planes for so long, but afterwards I started to feel "the wall" looming in front of me.
We called Richie & Lizzy and texted the rest of the family to let them know we had landed safely in Rome, as it was about 10:30pm on Tuesday night in Melbourne. We had to wait about two hours before we boarded a shuttle bus for our next flight to Catania in Sicily. It was on this flight that I slept the deepest, for another 45 minutes. However, I did not wake feeling at all refreshed, but as though my body was awake and my mind was still asleep. Typical feelings of jet lag were already settling-in and we hadn't even arrived at our destination!
When we landed, everyone on the plane applauded which was a little off-putting. I think they were congratulating the pilot for a safe landing, which made me wonder how often they had experienced otherwise. As soon as the plane had touched down and long before it had taxied into its bay, they all took off their seat belts and stood up to get their bags out of the overhead lockers. There they stood, eagerly looking at the front of the plane for the next five or so minutes as we taxied into our spot. Obviously they couldn't wait to get off the plane. Neither could we, but we were happy to stay seated for just a little longer!
We followed the small crowd of Sicilians that we had flown with (who all seemed to know each other) to the luggage carousels, which they all crowded closely around, even though there were no cases to be seen as yet. They all seemed to be so eager to be out of there, but then I guess they had not been travelling for a day and a half and still had some energy. We hung back and sat on the seats to await the luggage, which gradually disgorged out of the rear wall onto the carousel. We watched as about 80% of our fellow travellers located their cases and left, but ours still did not appear and I began to feel a little uneasy that they had not made it the long journey to Sicily. However, there were still others waiting like us, so I did not panic too quickly. Then Wayne glanced over to the neighbouring carousel and spotted my suitcase (not difficult, as it is made of lipstick red "crocodile skin"). So we moved over to that carousel and located all of our cases immediately. Apparently, they had just enjoyed a lovely trip via Tel Aviv.
After picking up our hire car - a black Fiat Pinto which was just big enough to fit us and our luggage - we loaded the hotel's address into the GPS app on Wayne's phone and headed off for a 50 minute drive north to Taormina. It was about 6pm by this stage and the sun was beginning to set. The weather was warm (about 26°C) and the sun was a big red ball on the horizon. We followed the freeway most of the way and the traffic was typically Italian - changing lanes all the time, cutting each other off, going way over the 100km speed limit and flashing their lights at us because we were not doing the same. We passed the magnificent live volcano of Mt Etna, shrouded in clouds, on our way.
Taormina is a beautiful ancient fortress village set up high on a hill, overlooking a magnificent bay. However, the streets are horrendously narrow and winding (with parking all along one side) and appeared to be mostly one-way. We eventually found our Hotel Villa Belvedere with the help of the excellent GPS app, but could not find a park, so kept going until we were almost 2km past the hotel, being pushed along by the cars behind us. So, we took the circuit up over the hill again for a second try. This time we found a tiny parking space about 800m before the hotel and managed to squeeze the Pinto into it.
Wayne walked to the hotel while I stayed and guarded the luggage. I did this by scaring off any would-be burglars with my majorly-swollen ankles and feet, which I had propped up on the dash. They had survived most of the flight, but the final leg to Catania had been just too much for my lymphatics and they had given up the ghost. It looked as though there were two large white fish on the dashboard.
Wayne returned with the bellhop from the hotel, who guided us in our car to their car park and then we checked into the Hotel Bellevedere. The young woman receptionist and an older woman manager were extremely helpful and took us to our room, which overlooked the magnificent bay. I collapsed on the bed and was asleep (fully-dressed) before the bellhop arrived with our luggage. Wayne ordered a pizza to be delivered and woke me when it arrived, but I was barely conscious and unable to eat. I undressed and was asleep again within seconds. I guess it was about 8:30pm and we had been travelling for over 36 hours.
I woke during the night and went out to the balcony to enjoy the beautiful view and write this blog. Then I was back asleep again.
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| The night time view from our balcony |
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