Andiamo ~ Let’s go 🇮🇹
Here goes everything. We’re following our hearts and going on a wing & a prayer to Italy….. join us for no doubt ~ a Griswald 5 alarm family fun journey. Full of daily shenanigans. We don’t speak Italian. We don’t know what we’re about to get ourselves into. Don’t you want to come along? We got our covid tests with negative results 48 hours before our scheduled flight – on Sunday 2/21/21. We flew from Orlando, Florida to JFK, NY with Delta. Once in NY the Alitalia agent did temperature screenings, confirmed our negative results and asked about our trip to Italy. We provided our home purchase documents and explained we had further ”business” to conduct. She went and verified with her manager … we held our breath & said prayers. Then after a few anxious minutes she informed us we were all set 💃🕺.
She even complimented how organized I was. I had my handy dandy “Italy folder” with a tight grip. It’s looking good so far! Fingers, toes & legs crossed. We then boarded on Alitalia at 5:40 pm and arrived on schedule at 7:55 am into Rome (Fiumicino Airport).
Onboard, we were given dinner, breakfast, water, a pillow & blanket. Mike and I had our own row (seats of 4). Much better than my flight on Norwegian- where I was not even given a bottle of water on my 8 hr flight (from Orlando to London). I still don’t get that. My attention was immediately drawn to 5 younger (18 +) Americans at our gate. They all reminded me of my son Michael. I even text Michael laughing when one of them in line boarding, commented how f-ing hot he was with the mask on. I assumed they were returning to school or were military. They sat in our section which for me was reassuring, as I have severe flying anxiety. Upon landing in Rome our flight immediately proceeded to the covid testing site. It was a pretty smooth process, except a lot of unnecessary paperwork. In my opinion anyway. We had been instructed by Alitalia to pre print forms. Actually, the airlines called us to personally confirm our travel details. Including our negative test & if we had printed forms. Again, onboard we were given more forms. Then immediately landing in Rome, another set of forms. Then actually, we were instructed to complete an online form to expedite the registration. We simply scanned that QR code. So the 3 previous sets of forms were not needed. They are worried about plastic straws, yet nobody cares the amount of unnecessary papers being thrown in the trash during this pandemic.
Anyway, we went through the covid testing with this group of young guys and started talking as we seemed to be the only Americans. The only Americans who had no clue LOL and spoke no Italian. We were in good company with these guys. Come to find out they were all MARINES… 🇺🇸. They were being stationed in Italy. Right then, I knew my dad was with me. I told them my dad was a Marine & Vietnam Veteran and he had just passed away in August. I told them he would want me to say Semper Fi & I thanked them all for their service 🇺🇸. I told them to be safe. It was comical watching them get covid tested and their reactions to the jammed nasal swab. When the Marines are brought to feeling uncomfortable ~ you know you didn’t overreact. It wasn’t pleasant, but, if it allowed entry into Italy we didn’t mind. Now we pray no fever & for a negative result. At this point, our stress level is only building.