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.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Saturday, June 20, 2015
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.
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.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Vienna and the return
It was a 20-minute ride: of the two adjacent squares along the Danube, I'd thought of Schwedenplatz, but it really arrived at Morzinplatz, so it was an extra block between bridges, after I crossed the river, to get to my hotel, the Schick City Central. The man checked me in pleasantly, expressing regret that I just had one night, and gave me a wi-fi login. I got my bearings in the room before going out for my brief walk and dinner. I basically just had went as far as Stephensplatz (St. Stephen's Cathedral), seeing the streets full of people. The restaurant that I'd chosen was EF16, with an entrance in a little alley, where I'd made a reservation. I had a dish of large ravioli, and a Wiener Schnitzel, which overall fell short of expectations. Back through the lively streets and riverfront to the hotel, to bed before too long, as I got a text of Margaret's arrival in Charlotte.
I woke up to broad daylight and the fear that I'd overslept, but it was in fact 5 a.m. I could sleep a little longer and was still up before the alarm-set time of 6.30, which was where breakfast started. The hotel really shone in its breakfast offerings, with a room full of spreads of all kinds of pastries and cold cuts, even sparkling wine but I didn't partake of that. I did well enough before checking out and getting to the bus stop in time for the 7.30 bus. That went well this Sunday morning.
With my boarding pass in hand and no bags to check, I just needed to get to my departure gate. There was the security check and exit passport control, and long hallways to take in this airport that is like the big German airports in having gates on several levels above each other, differentiating Schengen and non-Schengen. With all this, it was 15 minutes from the bus arrival to my gate, two hours before scheduled departure. I'll also note that a cappuccino there cost €4.60, compared to an espresso at Rome airport for essentially the city price of €1.10. Agents reviewed my passport as I entered the gate area, and I got my Chicago-Kansas City boarding pass (my attempts to get a mobile pass on the United app hadn't succeeded).
Then we got past the posted boarding time of 8.40, and they announced a delay from 10.05 to 10.40. I thought this would end all hope of making my 95-minute connection in Chicago, and I asked at the counter about being protected on a later flight. At the gate counter, they said they couldn't help, but I could see about it at the ticket counter at the start of the concourse if there wasn't too long a queue. I found that I could get attention there, but the agent would not give me help. I was back at the gate, and before too long they called boarding, for all Economy passengers. Once I was seated, I heard the man in the couple behind me realize that he'd left his jacket in the gate area. He asked about getting back (the plane being much lower than that gate) and the attendant said she'd see about getting it retrieved. She did in fact show up with the jacket. When the plane pulled away, I was glad to see that the seat next to me was empty, it was around 10.30, and it took off before 10.40. My big worry had been that, once a delay is announced, it tends to get extended.
When flight information was showing on the seatback screen, it was showing an early arrival; apparently flight conditions were favorable. In the typical chicken-pasta choice for dinner, I got fried chicken. After the wine with lunch, I had some sleep; then I spent most of the rest of the flight working on blog composition. The good run of the flight kept up, and we landed early at Chicago O'Hare.
I still had to worry about making my connection. The flight arrived at Terminal 5 for international arrivals; on previous trips, I'd been on the American non-stop from Rome arriving at gate M1, the farthest gate to the northwest; this flight came to gate M19, the farthest east, where it seems like quite a long walk to get to the central customs area. There were some moving sidewalks. As we got close, there were signs saying that people with only carry-ons could keep right. This was posted in several languages, with English to the left, which could disorient people coming off a long flight. Another sign gave the program a name like OneStop. When I finally got there, there was roped-off line to the right just saying OneStop; I confirmed with the woman there that this was where to go with a carry-on. The customs agent confirmed that I was just going with a carry-on, took my landing card, and waved me through. People behind me were asking if they should have taken that line and got it answered. There I was in a hallway along the edge of the building, completely bypassing the customs hall, and winding up in the public arrivals hall.
I knew that I needed to get the train to my connecting terminal, and my United Express flight could use either Terminal 1 or 2. My walking route did not take me by any board that showed my connecting gate. I went onto the United app to determine my gate at Terminal 1. I got the train to that terminal. Since the pass issued by Austrian for a United flight would not show if I had Pre-check, I went to a kiosk (there was a line of them with no one using them) and got a pass which, happily, showed Pre-Check. I had a peek at long lines for regular security, while I went to the special entrance for Pre, where I was cleared promptly. Now there was the underground walkway to Concourse C, and to my gate close to one of the ends of that concourse. Getting between some of the most distant gates, it was 55 minutes from the runway to my connecting gate, and plenty of time before boarding; things had worked out well.
I boarded, with a friendly young woman coming from Paris seated next to me on the regional jet. There was an announcement that the boiler didn't work and there would be no coffee, which I hoped to have, and the plane went through a storm when landing. I had a shuttle to the motel where my car was parked, and I made my way home to see Margaret and the neighbors who had us over. A full day to end a full trip, a great experience as my travel has taken a new form with Margaret as part of it.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Final week in Umbria and Rome
There's much to catch up with as I start this at Vienna airport. Early on Tuesday morning I went to Perugia airport, where I met the fast-traveling two young women, the neighbors' daughter and her friend, arriving on a flight from Cagliari. We had a fine time for the little time that we saw them, as the time included their full day trip to Rome on the bus, including missing the return bus so we needed to meet them on the train at Ponte S. Giovanni.
Now another font from offline composition on the plane: After final greetings with the local people we saw every day, we loaded the car for an 8 a.m. departure to Rome, to make the 11 a.m. promised rental return time. I hadn't had a need for the TomTom satnav GPS we have for Europe before on this trip. I'd turned it on in the house and it seemed the battery was drained. I plugged it into the car lighter, and it was having problems getting a signal around even the small Umbertide buildings. Margaret said a signal came up right when we left the piazza, and I figured I could put the destination in when we next had a stop. That was at the end of the autostrada, when I filled up with diesel fuel. After the pumps there was only a place to hover: I put in the destination as a street intersection: the device said it was looking through thousands of routes and I handed it to Margaret to say when the route was finally showing. She saw that it gave walking directions; as she was trying to reset it, it pulled up a last destination on Capri. Apparently I'd used it for walking directions there, and that was the last I'd used it. Margaret was not seeing how to change it to driving directions; I'd looked over the route on Google Maps the previous day and had a general sense of it, but I'd have liked to know when the turns were approaching. The worst problem was when I guessed I was at the spot to turn left, I figured I was fully in the left-turn lane, waiting at a red arrow, but a van behind me was honking, indicating I was blocking the way to go straight with a green light, so I went ahead and went straight. It turns out that took me on a loop so I could go back and get on the street where I wanted, this time as a right turn. Hoping I had it correct, I was looking for via Po and there it was: I was making my way where I wanted in Rome with minimal trouble. I got to our hotel, the Principessa Isabella, and left Margaret off with most of the bags, a problem since she isn't supposed to lift much and there's an outdoor ramp down to the entrance to turn in before one is in view of desk staff. I was stopped in the street with no place to pull over, but only motorcycles showed up in the time I was stopped. I made my way to the designated return spot at the garage of the Hotel Excelsior on via Sicilia. Europcar staff took over the car when I pulled in, and I later got an email of the final charges for road taxes showing that they'd done dynamic currency conversion converting the charge to dollars, something I disapprove of but the extra charge was small.
I walked back to our hotel, Margaret had not tried to check in; I found that our room would not be ready until 2, ending a string of good luck I've had in that regard in Rome. We walked towards via Veneto, expecting to find overpriced places if we were thinking of having lunch, but found the Stil Novo, offering an "Easy Lunch." They offered main dishes with sides for €10. We got back to the hotel around 1.30, and could get into the room. Margaret encouraged the dour desk manager to smile, and he did, saying he was dealing with a dental problem, so we had more sympathy about his attitude.
We were settled in the room, and didn't have much of an agenda for these two days in Rome; we'd left open the chance that Lisa and Dawn would be there and we'd do things together. For now, our stroll took us to Villa Borghese with many people out, leading us back to via Veneto and our hotel. We had dinner at a Sardinian restaurant, where I had a fried seafood platter and Margaret stuck to Roman specialties.
We awoke to rain the next morning. We had the hotel's nice breakfast spread and wondered what to do, since we were to check out by noon to move to another hotel (both stays on points). Margaret wasn't up to any museum visits; we talked about going to Stazione Termini for the enclosed shopping space, although it's a place to be on one's guard. We started to walk there, with one small umbrella, and it wasn't working; we turned around, preferring to sit in the lobby rather than the small room. We had the idea to call the next hotel and ask if a room would be ready, and it was. We checked out and had them call a taxi (actually make an online request), and the rain had stopped.
Our destination was the Hotel de la Ville. The taxi overshot it and went to the Hassler; we could have walked next door easily enough, but the driver insisted on going around the block to do it right, with the meter running. We checked in to the nice place at the top of the Spanish Steps. Margaret's interest now was in taking a walk to Piazza Navona, Campo de' Fiori, and Via Monserrato, where the school where we met was. We had sandwiches at a bar on the way, and also paused for a drink at the Caffè Farnese.
We'd had some calls and notes during these days to meet with Slow Travelers Wendy and Rob. Now it was time to meet them for drinks at the Hotel Excelsior. We got an honest taxi driver taking us between these top-class hotels for €5. It was a very pleasant meeting with them, in anticipation of more time with them on the Monterey Peninsula in July.
Without having given much thought to where we would have our last dinner, we took Wendy and Rob's suggestion to go to Nino, where I'd eaten decades ago. It's a Tuscan place in demand, with people waiting outside at the 7.30 opening, and we got in. We found it tourist-oriented, but nice.
Now it was the eve of our separate departures. Margaret got her boarding passes printed; I had wanted a mobile BP from Austrian Airlines, but I was running into problems. They were giving a list of departure places that didn't include Rome or most of the busier airports. I ran into the same problem also on the business center's desktop.
In the morning, I saw Margaret off on the limo we'd arranged through Rome Shuttle Limousine. I could stay in the room a few more hours, getting some texts on her progress, before I needed to go. Being on my own, I tried the cheap public transport route. I checked out of the hotel, and went to the top of the Spanish Steps, where there's a metro entrance calling for going down some steps, then getting the elevator. The metro and other shortcut walkway was very busy, I bought a ticket from the machine, saw how the turnstiles now operate, and took a series of escalators down to the metro tracks. On the train, a young man gave up his seat to me with my luggage; I guess I now look old enough to deserve such an offer.
I went to Termini, where I'd made an advance booking, printing the ticket, for the Terravision bus. I found the Terra Café on via Marsala, on the side of the train station, where I needed to show the prepaid (€4) ticket to get a plastic boarding card assuring my place on the bus. The ticket said the pass issuance would start 20 minutes before departure; the line was long enough that I figured I'd get to the counter at that point, and I later heard them say it opened at 30 minutes. I got that pass without problems and could wait on the sidewalk in the shade before the bus showed up at the median in the sun. There was a woman with a bright vest with the airport name saying when to board; passengers put bags directly in the luggage hold, I boarded without problems, but others appeared to have trouble when they hadn't followed procedure. We left with a full bus and a long line of people on the median in the sun; I'm not sure what their situation was, but I was glad to have boarded by procedure.
The bus got to Fiumicino airport, in the bus area past the end of Terminal 3, where I hadn't been before, and there was a departure board showing buses to Rome by the different companies. Since I needed to do regular check-in, I found the designated counters for my flight, got boarding passes including for the next morning's flight, and wasn't challenged in carrying on my backpack. I got a nice enough pasta dish at the Ciao cafeteria upstairs, and got the code to add value to my Italian cell phone in a year to keep the number active. Airport security went relatively efficiently, and the departure gate to Vienna was posted only as Concourse D, no number given until within an hour of the flight; like many, I stood around a screen until it was posted, and went to that gate.
Monday, May 19, 2014
More around Umbria
On Friday, after a brief stop in Città di Castello, we went uphill to Citerna where, as we remembered from before, a grocery store served at outside tables a tagliere, literally a cutting board, filled with excellent cold cuts and a little cup with ravioli with truffle sauce. It was a pleasant time.
On Saturday we didn't do much during the day, in anticipation of a big dinner where we were invited by Moira. Her uncle was my best friend in my middle school days here. Moira and her mother prepared a very full meal, so nice to be with her and her family, and her encouraging me to be active on Facebook basically led me to reconnect with Margaret, so how to measure the importance of that in my life?
We'd thought it best to avoid Gubbio on the day of the Ceri race Thursday, May 15, with the huge crowds that always go there; we went the following Sunday. When I wanted to go to the easy parking area on Piazza 40 Martiri, access was blocked; I went way beyond there, not finding any place to turn around. I eventually got turned around and went to the next choice, the Teatro Romano parking lot, where people were parked in the craziest way and I didn't want to take part. I turned farther away from the town center and eventually found a fine parallel parking spot.
We found that there were still crowds and activity there, because of the Ceri Mezzani, a version of the Ceri race for youth (mostly teenagers, I think). Many youth were decked out in the colors of their teams, and we found people out there running around with smaller versions of these Ceri. We went to Taverna del Lupo, a longtime favorite restaurant of my family's, where the truffled lasagne dish now had the title of sfogliatine. Then a climb to Piazza Grande; taking the gradual street downhill, there was a table set up in the middle of the street, where wine was freely given to us.
On Monday, Margaret wasn't feeling well, and it was time for Lisa and Dawn to move on to Spello. I drove them, and it gets confusing where one winds up when driving there. We wound up on the central piazza, and figured out where we were to go to pick up the keys at a bar for their rental apartment. When we got there, the bar-restaurant was closed on Monday, and there was no reply at the two phone numbers listed for the agency. We were puzzling over what to do, and I went into the restaurant up the street, with the door open but well before serving time. I asked the lady there, who was familiar with the agency, and found the owner's mother, who had the keys and let them in, a happy resolution to a potential problem. So we've had interesting times.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Umbertide, settling in
After a quiet weekend, when we were getting updates from Margaret's longtime friend Lisa, who was traveling with her mother Dawn in Florence and Lucca, we got word of their plans to arrive in Perugia Monday. I got word to them to stay on the train past Perugia to Ponte S. Giovanni station, where it was easiest for us to meet them. I was worried about it working out, when they were traveling without cell phones, but it all worked out, and we were glad to see them get off the train. We had them settle into our house, and we went to dinner at the wonderful restaurant down our street, San Giorgio. Some of us had the great specialty of mezzelune (half-moon shaped filled pasta) filled with a carbonara sauce and asparagus.
A quieter day Tuesday, with walks around town and rain later, was followed by a busy market day Wednesday. Here are some pictures.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Out of Venice, on to Umbertide
On the morning of our departure from Venice, we didn't look forward to getting our bags over to pick up our rental car. With the S. Marcuola stop closed, it was a choice between Ca' D'Oro on the Canal Grande, or Guglie on the Canale di Cannaregio. They were about the same distance, but the former would call for crossing three bridges, the latter one and the start of another before turning. I asked at a hotel about getting a porter, and got a card for someone to call. I was expecting high prices, but this porter, Shadhen, available 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., tel. 333 224 1939, quoted €10 for two bags to Piazzale Roma, which seemed too good to be true. We got him to come after we had the apartment cleaned as well as possible; there was a bit of a delay for him to find our location, but he got there and we also put our carry-ons on his cart. It was hard to keep up with him on the walk to Piazzale Roma. I thought it was fair to give him €30, which made him happy. Compare that to the vaporetto at €7 per person where technically the bags need a ticket too, and it was very nice not to need to handle our bags.
We were at the Europcar office right around the appointed 11 a.m. time. There was one agent on duty, and it was taking time to check in the previous customer. Eventually they got to us, booked with a Kemwel voucher. With our car type of Fiat Bravo or similar, I was skeptical when the agent said we'd get a Fiat 500 L. A Fiat 500 evokes one thing for someone with a long history with Italy, not good for a long drive, but this was in fact a roomy enough car for our purposes, and a diesel. I got my bearings well enough to get turned around and onto the bridge out of Venice, being especially alert to follow the speed limits, since I see many stories of people being caught by the speed cameras there.
We joined the autostrada, and it was overall a smooth ride. We stopped for lunch at an Autogrill near Bologna. I had cannelloni that could have been warmer, and Margaret had a nice cold plate of mozzarella, prosciutto, tomatoes, and olives. We exited the autostrada at Cesena, and yes, the machine at the booth accepted my non-chip credit card. Then it was a superstrada through the mountains to Umbertide, with some slowdowns and maybe one scary moment with lanes merging to one because of construction.
Arrival in Umbertide has been pretty calm, getting initial food from my longtime friend Angelo's grocery store. On Saturday we had the farmer's market shortly outside our door, we did a little more shopping, and we've mostly had time to settle in before the arrival of friends expected tomorrow.
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