Bougie Me

I will say it. I prefer direct flights. My flight was delayed. The first plane was taken out of service, so they had go find a 2nd one (just as I was decided the universe meant for me to have a 2nd alcoholic beverage we moved to the 2nd gate that did NOT have such service readily available). My flight that was supposed to leave at 245 actually left around 5. So instead of getting in at 8 I got in around 10, which was fine. I got thru immigration and customs just fine and found my bus to take me to the metro and found my hotel. Thankfully they had my room ready to go, so after a quick jaunt out to get a working charger cord (I grabbed the wrong one) I spent a good hour or two in the room charging my phone and myself before venturing out for food. 

My bags

Travel bloody mary

Dinner on the flight

Coming in

On the bus 

Welcome to Rome

Preparing for the Jubilee 

The door to my hotel, not that you can tell.

The foyer.

SO MUCH better than a hostel 😁

I went easy for food and went to the Rome central Mercado. A giant food court next to the train station. I got a sammich. On the way back I stopped at a pharmacy and got a fantastic. Took it back to my hotel and had a little solo dinner. 

Delicious.

I continued to relax, took a lovely shower, and eventually gave in to the exhaustion. I also put my breakfast order out cuz you know, why not? Room service in Rome, I will eat breakfast for that 😉

The saga of picking people up and getting to the villa is extensive, so I'm gonna spare you the agony and just share the result.

Villa and surrounding area. 

it's quiet, almost serene out here. 

From here on you will have to deal with no pix because Google is being a jerk. We had a wonderful time. There were just a couple flies in the ointment. 

First, our cohorts had a couple cancled flights so they got in way later than they intended, meaning that we drove to the villa at night. No problem except that they shut down part of the autostrade for construction, so Google routed us through narrow, winding country roads, small towns, up and down, and all around the roundabouts. It was ever so slightly unnerving, as I was already nervous about driving in italy. Then, what is the last thing you want to see in a rental car? Yep. "Engine failure, repair needed." So yeah, I'm driving an unfamiliar car down unfamiliar roads in an unfamiliar country and now its possible that the car could die on me. As we got to the dirt road that the villa is off of, I got a new message: break system failure, pull over now. Of course I didn't. We were so close. So we got there. The next day we had to get to Florence for a wine tour. So the 2nd car followed us in, and sure enough, we lost power on the autostrade, and the car died about 5 or 6 times on the way to Florence, at least once in Florence, and when I tell you that my stress levels were off the friggin charts, I'm not exaggerating. I contacted the rental company and ended up basically demanding they find me another car, which they did. It was newer and nicer. I felt much better driving in Italy with the 2nd car. I almost got comfortable, in fact!

The wine and food tours were amazing, I highly recommend them. Also, be sure to schedule lazy days on vacation. They are also needed. I went horseback riding for the first time in approx 25 years, and boy did THAT feel like mean math. I did not go to the Vatican because the last time I went the pope abdicated, instead I went to assisi and wasn't able to see the basilica because the G7 were there. Dash it all. We had a few travel snafus: food poisoning, lost luggage, flight issues, but all in all it was an AMAZING trip, we had a lovely time, and we would love to go back. I do wish my hubbs had been there, but perhaps next time. The hotel I had on the water in rome the last night was amazing. Id for sure go there again. 

Anyway, I'm home now. And our kitty is being super cute laying on me. I'm still VERY jet lagged, and NOT looking forward to work tomorrow. I did get food for the week and as of Friday I'm off to GR to watch the animals again. Maybe by the time my friends get married in a couple weeks I'll be back to normal. You know, in time for daylight savings to end. SMH.