And the return: Arrivederci

I'm running into trouble adding text after the pictures in the last post, so I'll start a new one here.  The day continued casually around our old neighborhood, with Margaret buying shoes, and finally eating casually standing up at a neighborhood bar, and it went on to night at the nice hotel room.

We were up around 6 in the hope of getting a cappuccino, but the bars weren't open yet.  At 7, in the hotel lobby they were pushing the expensive breakfast, and we just wanted cappuccini sitting down.  We were afraid of a high price for those, but they were comped, and we were certainly pleased with our free night at the Indigo.  Margaret looked at her email and found notice that our flight to Chicago, scheduled for departure at 11.20, was delayed until 13.45.  Although we'd have liked to stay in central Rome a little longer, we had a car reserved with a driver there.

I'd reserved a car  through the Rome Shuttle Limousine service, and a minivan was there for us in advance of our booked 7.30 time.  As much as possible through the sometimes terrifying traffic, it was a nice ride to the airport, Terminal 5 for American Airlines.

We got to the counter before there were too many passengers (and we'd printed our boarding passes at the hotel, space in name problem resolved), but had to wait because of an apparent system problem printing our luggage tags.  The agent added a note that we could get a free snack such as a sandwich at the Ciao bar in the gate area, because of the flight delay.  Margaret asked for a wheelchair; from past experience we figured we could have breakfast at the less crowded T5 snack bar while waiting for the chair.

In fact it seems a chair turned up quickly when we weren't looking.  We waited and were told a chair was coming until people decided that we'd missed one.  I could also observe that the check-in counter had a considerably longer line at 9 than when were there shortly after 8.  Contrary to the previous time, after clearing exit controls and security I could be on the same bus as Margaret to the gate satellite.

We got to the gate with lots of time to see go by; we did some of our separate runs while saving a seat for each other and seeing the previous scheduled flight for that gate board.  We each got our own panino from the Ciao bar, when we saw a different flight show at our gate, and we heard an announcement that our gate had changed.

We went to that gate, and eventually it was time to board.  They paged Margaret as one of a group getting wheelchair assistance, and there was a group of friendly attendants.  We boarded, and were told that some of the delay would be made up.

We took off, and after Margaret first got up she noticed her seat cushion was wet.  The best conclusion we could reach is that, in the quick turnaround of the flight, delayed because of being late coming over from Chicago, they didn't have a chance to do a very thorough cleaning.  There were several empty seats--perhaps people were booked on other transatlantic flights because they were going to miss their connection on this one?--and we could move forward a row.  It appears that this meant we were in a Main Cabin Extra row, with a few inches more legroom, so this was nice enough.  We had our special meal, I ordered a cognac, and they waived the charge, the flight attendant not knowing the charge since hard drinks are ordered so rarely in the main cabin with wine and beer being free.  Then there was ice cream mid-flight, and a warm snack, as the hours moved on.

Our revised arrival time was showing as 4.15, after the scheduled 3.05 and first-announced with the delay 5.30.  There were clouds in the area and we needed to fly over and approach O'Hare from the west instead of the usual east.  Our arrival was around 4.30, and we docked in a slightly closer-in than usual gate at the international arrivals terminal.

We had a wheelchair attendant there.  He took us to the customs area.  I pointed out that we had used the Mobile Passport app and had completed our information there.  He said to hold onto that, but he took us to the regular clearance area, where we took our pictures at kiosks.  We were in the regular line, and it appeared that it spent long periods at a standstill, with the agents at the booth not doing anything.  Our best conclusion was that their computers were having problems, and I don't know if going through the Mobile App lanes would have been faster.  The delivery to baggage claim had been completed, and our bags were in a handful taken off the belt still to claim.

We were clear, and at around 5.30 were delivered to the area represented as where we would wait for the shuttle to the Embassy Suites, although we would need to call because it didn't regularly go the international terminal.  With our calls, there was confusion about going through the phone menu correctly.  We got someone who promised a prompt shuttle.  We waited long enough with nothing showing; I called again and was told to go up to the departures level because of construction (there but not causing major problems then) at arrivals.  We went up, with Margaret feeling a major burden, and the bus showed up.

The bus, also stopping at other hotels, got us to the Embassy Suites.  It was nice to have this night on points rather than a tight flight connection that we would have missed, or extend the day much longer with another flight.  The hotel was a little worn but it was nice to have a suite, with Margaret ready to go right to sleep.  There was a "manager's reception" with a drink for a nightcap, not much to eat but we weren't much in need.

We had plenty of sleep and were up early for the hotel's full breakfast.  With a noon flight, we went ahead and took the shuttle at 9.20.  We checked bags and had wheelchair assistance and Pre-Check to clear security promptly; I didn't notice long regular lines.  Since we didn't have the lounge access that I'd hoped before the start of the trip, we had ourselves taken to our gate in concourse L.  I had in mind that I'd like to try one of the best-rated airport concessions, Tortas Frontera, in concourse K.  Margaret agreed to go, putting up with the vastness of the walks at O'Hare.  Although it was crowded and confusing, we got counter space and had nice breakfast sandwiches.

Our flight to Kansas City had a long standby and they were looking for bump volunteers; we weren't ready for that.  Many passengers on the flight had just connected from India.  Then that flight and the trip were concluded.

So, what to say in conclusion?  It was great to go to these places that are part of us, and see great people.  I can think of how well my mother is part of these places, and how well she is remembered.  I hope that, with Margaret, we can keep seeing the part of us that is in Italy and Europe.

Last day in Rome

Monday, the last day in Rome, included a change of hotels.  The included breakfast at the Bolivar let us get a great view of roofs of Rome from the breakfast room.
In the morning, we strolled up via Nazionale, noting the city buses decked with flags, indicating, from my memories 40 years back, either a holiday or a state visit.  I was expecting it to be the latter, looking for clues around the Quirinale, but from what I later understood it was Europe Day.

We went to the show about Correggio and Parmigianino at the Scuderie del Quirinale, interesting, about our only look at art on this trip, and also liked the city views that we got.

We were approaching check-out time at the Bolivar, and got them to call a taxi for our next hotel, the Indigo St. George.  That taxi came and took us to the neighborhood of the school where Margaret and I first met.

Our room was available for an early check-in.  This was a free night for having the affiliated credit card; staff were friendly, and the rooms had fun decorations, ours with the old-style Fiat 500.



Within minutes of settling in, there was a knock on the door and a lady brought us a bottle of Prosecco, because in filling out our preferences online before our arrival, I said the occasion was our anniversary (hey, close enough to the date).

We had our look at the two locations of the school; here is the first.

And we had our final Roman meal at La Carbonara on Campo de' Fiori: generally good Roman dishes, although the place may have declined some.  Then follows Piazza Navona.

And on to Rome

Our last full day in Umbertide was our anniversary.  We talked about going to Assisi, but finally we just completed the time staying in the Umbertide area.  We had a lunch in the nearby country house of Poggiomanente, confusing because I remembered it being on the right side of the road, and there was a big sign there, but when we pulled in there was a car with a driver directing us to follow him to the new location down the road on the left side. We went there and had a nice meal with truffle pasta.

We closed down the house and had an early departure to get to Rome by the promised return time.  There was the fear that goes with driving in Rome; with help from the GPS, I found my way to the Hertz return garage open on Sunday, on via Sardegna.  I’d studied the street view and saw separate entrances for Avis and Budget on one hand, and Hertz and Europcar on the other.  The problem was that there were two cars facing out and blocking the entrance to the Hertz side.  I was reluctantly preparing to turn into the Avis side when a car pulled out of the Hertz side so we could get in.  An attendant (I hope the right one?) checked us in.  

Then I was hoping to use the IT TAXI app on Margaret’s iPad to call a taxi using our location setting.  I was getting an error message on that.  Of the numbers I know, I called 065551, got an operator who kept us on hold, then said there were no cabs to be found.  I called 063570 and stayed on hold without getting an operator.  We went to a cross street where we’d seen several cabs pass.  When one passed, the driver had passengers but advised us to call 060609.  I called this, and gave the address with voice recognition, glad my accent wasn’t too bad.  They connected me to a nearby driver, who was the one who had driven by.

He came by and picked us up; he explained that this was a busy Sunday with a marathon in addition to other sports and crowds going to the Vatican.  Our hotel, the Comfort Hotel Bolivar, is in a small alley where the driver had trouble getting.  We got there and were glad to find the room ready and on the ground floor.

We got ready and left by taxi for Di Rienzo by the Pantheon.  We had a get-together with people we knew from the SlowTrav group.  There was an endless assortment of food, very entertaining, then we spent time at members’ rented apartment.  That took us to the evening.

Pictures from Città Di Castello and in Rome around the Pantheon:

Getting to Umbertide, first week there

We’ve arrived in Umbertide, and for this week one reason I haven’t blogged is that the Wi-Fi hasn’t worked in the house.  We pay for it for the time we aren’t here, and for the brief time we’re here we need to wait for a service call.  Today it’s finally done.

On my usual transportation theme, we loaded the car in Grimaud, then getting out of town was a problem I’d rather forget.  Anyway, we weren’t delayed too much, and we made our return trip through the many tunnels and past Genoa.  We had an Autogrill stop with pasta al pesto.  I had thought that, if the drive took a lot longer than expected, we’d stop for the night in Lucca.  It was around 3 when we went by there, and we were ready to complete the trip to Umbertide.  We got it done, finding the house nice except for Wi-Fi and TV reception.  For the Internet, we used the hotspot capabilities of the local SIM on Margaret’s iPad, but we ate through the allowance quickly and needed to get more data.

Beyond that, we worked, in a small way, through matters of the house becoming mine, a difficult matter to sink in.  We know how my mother’s presence is felt in the house and around town.  We've stayed in Umbertide the whole time, and it’s been fine not to be too ambitious.  We’ve had great times visiting with friends and in the familiar shops.  

There could be more to report, but pictures of the Wednesday market generally make for a good conclusion.

Settling in Genoa

Rough notes about our arrival in Genoa:  nice apartment in a multi-ethnic neighborhood near Principe station and the harbor.  Nice eating at the modest Trattoria Da Mario around the corner.

Main outings involved thinking of getting a smartphone for Italy at the main TIM store on the main shopping street, via XX Settembre.  When the model we'd chosen wasn't available, rather than make a rash decision while jet-lagged we slept on it and decided to go back to the last trip's plan and get an Italian SIM for Margaret's iPad.  

We also made two productive trips to the covered market, Mercato Orientale.  Yesterday we got a 24-hour pass for public transport, then today we found the metro shut down by a strike, and took taxis.  

Otherwise we've wandered around our neighborhood, and have one more day to wander the Centro Storico.  I have these pictures of the tiles under the porticos on via XX Settembre, the market, and the cruise ship terminal.

Getting to Italy

I was composing my account of the travel while in flight, and the file seems to be gone.  I’ll try to redo the basics of what I usually report.

First, we had a regional jet flight from Kansas City to New York LaGuardia. We’d been unable to check in online; it turned out the reason was a space in our last name on our passports, which was different from how American Airlines had it.  The flight went well, although we can see LGA’s bad reputation.  We hoped to get a Lyft ride, using a friend’s promo code, but I kept running into failures, for a weak connection or whatever, and went back to our established relation with Uber, found that car in the chaotic traffic in front of the terminal, and got a good ride.

At JFK we got in at a time of light activity for that terminal.  At a set of kiosks, a man started to help as Margaret asked for a wheelchair and we needed to recheck our bags.  There was a wait for that and, although we already had our boarding passes, we ran into the problem again of the space in our names. 

With the bags checked, the wheelchair assistant got us through security, chaotic even at that time of otherwise light activity at that terminal.  We were still six hours before departure, and planned to go to the Admirals Club, buying a 30-day membership, which would be useful also on our return.  I already knew that one of the two clubs was under renovation and we went to the other one, but precisely because of that renovation, the lounge dragon (term in common use) told us that they were not selling 30-day memberships there.

If we’d known that, that might have changed our plans not to leave the airport.  The attendant offered to have us stay in the wheelchair lounge, back in the other concourse.  He described it as comfortable, but when we got there, it had the atmosphere of a doctor’s cramped waiting room,and we were quickly out.  We found one place to sit down for lunch, stayed in that quiet concourse for a bit, then we went back to the other concourse with our gate, and the time didn’t drag on too much.

We had the excitement of boarding a transatlantic flight.  A large number of the passengers were Hasidic or other Orthodox Jews, we later learned on an extended family reunion trip to northern Italy.  We’d ordered one special meal, served quickly as there was a large number of special meals.  We got a decent amount of sleep.

We landed at Milan Malpensa and got to the gate at 8.30, 10 minutes late,and were hoping for everything to go well to make a train from the airport at 9.43.  We had a wheelchair waiting, and a big advantage was that attendant took us through passport control in the crew line, letting us bypass a long line.  Delivery of bags was being held up because the carousel was getting too full with the passengers still at passport control.  We eventually got the bags, and the attendant got us to the train station with time to spare.  He had me go to the staffed ticket window, where the agent, working for Trenord, only sold the tickets to Milano Centrale.  There was a machine for selling the tickets with seat assignments from Milan to Genoa.  I used the credit card that I had set up with a PIN, which that machine asked for.

The ride to Centrale went well, arriving at a track at the edge of the station.  With 45 minutes for the connection, we wanted to stop for a cappuccino, which appeared to call for leaving the platform area.  We got that, and re-entered the area, which now requires showing tickets.  Our train was the Thello, which continues into France.  That train went well, with a delay at the end.

We arrived at Genova Piazza Principe.  There was an elevator from the platform to the underpass, and we found our way to the via Andrea Doria exit from the station, just across from our booked apartment building.  We got the building manager, who showed us to our booked apartment, which looked fine.  The journey was complete.

Sadness, with more changes of plans

On January 10, 2016, my mother died following a stroke that she had over the Christmas period.  It is difficult to think of writing a full tribute, but it's impossible to measure the full scope of her influence on my life as a traveler.  Her interest in living in Europe meant that I spent formative years there.  My quick picking up of skills in practical matters such as navigation and transportation schedules complemented her talents in showing appreciation of the beauty of the places and picking up on local culture.  Margaret and I will look at our upcoming trip as a tribute to her as we revisit places where I lived with her.  In particular the trip to Grimaud will be interesting as I go back after so long and have conflicted views of my year there at 13.

So we've seen the consequences of making a booking so long in advance, that we continued to be notified of flight schedule changes.   Seeing where I left off in the last post on the flight changes.  In toying around with airfare sites as I often do, I found that the Kansas City-Miami flight was back on the schedule for our date of travel.  I called to see if we could get changed back to that, our original booking, regardless of SAAver award availability.  This agent was very helpful, calling another department to force a second award seat on the Miami-Milan flight, and it looked like a good booking for a comfortable trip.

Then the next day, I got an email of a new schedule change:  the flight from Miami would leave at 5.30 p.m. instead of 2.20, giving us seven hours in Miami.  We could take advantage of that with an outing to South Beach, but the later arrival in Milan would also be something of a concern in how we would get to Genoa.

Go ahead a couple of more months, and on the evening of my mother's death the airline sent a new email:  KC-Miami was off the schedule again, and they had us booked via Miami with a connection at Dallas/Fort Worth that was too short for comfort.  While trying to deal with getting back into routine things, I had to consider what effort I could make to get the least bad rebooking, which be going back to the option via Washington and the change of New York airports.  Then award availability turned up on the KC-LaGuardia flight, where service will just be starting two weeks before then.  I got that booking changed:  we'll go via New York, a change of airports but not an extra stop.

We'll have 7.5 hours to make the airport change.  We may just spend the time from getting to JFK in their Admirals Club, considering the hassle and transportation costs of leaving the airport, even for lunch within Queens.

We've also completed bookings at an apartment rental in Genoa, and a B&B in Grimaud, the limited option of staying in the village rather than the country or the faux fishing village of Port Grimaud.  The other thing that threw us for a loop was that I discovered that the Intercontinental Hotel de la Ville in Rome, where we were going to spend our last night on a program free night, would be closing down before we got there.  I was able to change that free night to the Indigo on via Giulia, in the area where Margaret and I went to school, so that should be nice.  At the time that I understand that people with reservations were notified of the closing, I couldn't have gotten that award night.  It has paid to keep looking at travel sites and boards.

Flight plan changes, of course

I was glad we had our trip to Europe booked on an award, but I still wanted to see if we could get onto preferable flights.  I was taking advantage of the rule that, if there is SAAver availability, American Airlines allows an award trip between the same two cities to be changed at no charge.  For the return trip, we were talking about having an overnight stay at our U.S. gateway airport before completing the trip the next day.  For our existing flight to Charlotte, it would be an inconvenience that there's no hotel attached to the terminal.  I went for it when a connection through Chicago became available:  we can use points at the Hilton attached to the terminal (true, not the international arrivals terminal) and then have a short flight to get home.  Quirks of the AA site include that international award bookings cannot be changed online:  they need a phone call.  Calls to AA have long hold times, but give the option of asking for a call back.  I did this, and got the flight change we wanted.

The bigger problem was the outbound:  I had chosen the date based on being able to get from Kansas City to Milan with one change.  Before I made this change on the return, I'd gotten an email saying that our schedule had been changed:  the Kansas City-Miami flight was no longer on the schedule for that date, and we'd been booked to Dallas-Fort Worth the night before, needing to be on our own to spend the night before going to Miami and getting the flight to Milan. 

We could get a hotel at DFW on points, but I still didn't like being forced into this change.  I had an alternative in mind completing it all in one day, and people on FlyerTalk said that, after a schedule change like this, I should be able to get a change booked regardless of SAAver availability.  I was reluctant to do this right away because of the chance that the KC-Miami flight would be reinstated (it's still set to operate on some days of the week at that time), and that there might be a future schedule change that would make trouble.  I was hoping to wait until the merger was complete and maybe the schedule was firm around two months before travel to try to change, but some people advised that AA may not be so receptive.

I still chose to sit and wait, checking almost daily to see if there was SAAver availability on alternate flights with good connecting times.  About a month and a half after being told of the change, I found availability on the JFK-Milan flight, the transatlantic segment being most important, and KC-Washington, with Washington-NY LaGuardia, requiring being on our own to claim bags and get to JFK, but allowing a long time for that. 

I hoped that I could invoke the problem of the schedule change to force availability on a Washington-JFK flight.  This agent insisted that I could only change to an itinerary with SAAver availability, so the flight to JFK was no go.  I explained the rule as I understood it, regretting that I didn't have a rule number to cite.  I thought of the often cited advice to hang up and call again, but it's a pain to need to call and wait for a call back.  I also thought that, if SAAver availability is in fact important, I should get this while it's available on the transatlantic segment.  I asked for a supervisor, waited on hold for a long time; the supervisor was more difficult to talk to than the first person, and still no budging on the rules.   I finally agreed to the connection requiring getting to LGA and allowing five hours to get to JFK; there's also a comfortable connecting time at Washington National.  I think these flights are pretty safe from having major schedule changes:  the Washington-LGA flight is an hourly shuttle inherited from other airlines.

So, maybe there was a better way of handling it, but we can live with this, and I'll keep checking for availability on the Washington-JFK flight.

Italy-France in 2016 coming into being

I haven't posted in over a year, since the end of our last trip to Europe; the booking of our next international trip becomes the occasion to revive this blog.

Pretty much since the end of that trip, and maybe before that, I had in mind the next trip, as usual with most of the time in Umbertide, but with the main side venture being to Grimaud, in southern France, where I lived for a year at age 13.  I generally view that year negatively, that at that age I was home-schooled and didn't have contact with peers.  I like the thought of going back with Margaret, showing the full success of having reached married life.

I've had in mind to go to Grimaud early in the trip, but I want to have the first leg of the open-jaw flight go to Milan rather than Nice.  I've accumulated a nice bunch of American Airlines miles mostly from credit card opening bonuses and the merger with US Airways, and it reached the stage where booking off-peak award trips for us will take less than half my mileage balance.  I see active people on travel boards talking about high airfares to Europe, when I've been able to go on miles most of the time, and the miles I've earned from flying have not been much of a key part of reaching these awards.

Reasons for flying to Milan are that flying to Nice on an AA award would probably require flying on British Airways, which has surcharges on awards that make it pointless to call it a free flight, and undesirable connections at Heathrow, and that a one-way car rental from France to Italy would have big surcharges.  Flying to Milan on AA's own flight makes it easier; they fly there from New York JFK and Miami.  JFK has its problems of needing a connection from Kansas City, and often the connecting flights on awards were only offered to LaGuardia, and we'd need to change airports on our own.  I was starting to think of starting our trip in St. Louis to use their non-stop to Miami, when last fall AA announced  the start of KC-Miami non-stop service.

I was thinking a lot about how to go about booking:  whether it was really needed,  I was going to see about what showed when the dates first opened for booking.  When that is can be a matter of confusion:  schedules open 331 days in advance, by you're more likely to start seeing SAAver awards at T-329.  Some people book their trips as one-ways; I was hesitant to do that in case an available  return date made it too different from a 3-week trip.  But AA does allow keeping bookings on 5-day holds.  I was aiming for a trip that ended by May 15, allowing us to go at the off-peak rate of 40,000 miles round trip, of which 10% would be rebated as a credit card holder.

So I started searching for an outbound 5 days before the schedule would open to allow returns through May 15.  I found availability to put on hold for the trip to Milan with one change in Miami, for a midweek date a few days before the ideal weekend dates.  With this, the return would be a few days earlier than planned, so I felt justified looking for return availability after a couple of days.  I had understood that I could modify the one-way I had on hold to a round trip or open jaw, but there was a message on my Hold screen that it could not be changed online.  Our preference was to get a return flight out of Rome, but what first showed was a one-change return from Milan.  I put a hold on that, and the options from Rome were frustrating.  Even excluding British Airways flights, and open to Air Berlin options with an overnight in Berlin, the frustrations with AA offerings were:  we were open to spending the night at the U.S. gateway, but what showed were options arriving at JFK or Philadelphia and then going to Charlotte or Miami for another connection or overnight.

I could book one of these and, as obsessive as I am, I would probably keep checking and eventually find a better option out of Rome, which we could change to at no charge as a trip between the same two cities, whereas if we booked out of Milan, we couldn't change it to Rome.  People on Facebook advised me to do the bad booking out of Rome and keep watching, but I was making plans based on going from Milan, having some time in Rome and taking the high-speed train, and perhaps getting a credit card for the purpose of having the points for a stay at the hotel attached to the terminal at Malpensa airport.

But then there was an opening for two out of Rome with one change in Charlotte; I held that and then completed the bookings as one-ways once we reached the outbound hold deadline and there were no better dates.  The option to put awards on hold is an extra consideration in award travel not being available, and then coming up; we need to consider what other people who are trying to book might be doing.  I mentioned to Margaret that there was the option of flying to JFK, spending the night, and then continuing with a connection; she kind of liked that, but it was no longer available.  I can keep searching for that, and the schedules may well continue to change with the completion of the merger; there's some question whether Rome-Charlotte service will continue.

So we have that basis of the trip booked:  the outline of the plan is, on the early-morning arrival in Milan, take the train, spend three nights in Genoa, which I haven't really seen, then rent a car to go to Grimaud for three nights.  Then go to Umbertide for our base until we go to Rome at the end.  There will be more to think about, with the flight dates established.