Rome - Final Day

Rome – Final Day

Today we have an early breakfast then head downstairs in the quaint lift for the short walk to the train station.  

There is a much cheaper bus to the airport but it leaves 20 minutes later and takes a bit longer, leaving us only 2 hours before the flight.  We opt for the more expensive train leaving shortly.

The crowd grows as we wait for the train to arrive and when it does it’s a mad rush to get our bags and ourselves on.  We grab seats and leave our bags sitting in the aisle.  Once again, mine rolls around on its four wheels.  Someone needs to put brakes on these cases!

Fumicino airport is huge and it takes us at least 10 minutes of wandering around aimlessly to find our check in.  Being early has its perks and there are only about 8 people in front of us.  Half an hour later, there are still 8 people in front of us and many behind us and a staff member decides to leave - it seems the conveyor belt isn’t working, although the airline next door seems to be checking people in.  After about an hour we are finally checked through and proceed through to the departure lounge.  Well, I’ve never seen so many people trying to get through the checkpoints to the departure lounges!  The queues were huge and very slow moving.  Lucky we came early, although the plane is now due to leave in 30 minutes.  I don’t know how the rest of the people will be here in time as it is now time to board. 

We arrive at the lounge to find no plane or no staff to process the boarding.  Talk about inefficient!  And this is the same Gulf Air that we flew on the way over.  So after another ½ hour or so we finally go down to a bus and head out to the plane.  Not a good start, being an hour late and we have a connecting flight with two hours between them.

However, the hostess from Australia welcomes us back on board and stops to chat to us, remembering us from the previous flight.  Very impressive!

We arrive back in Bahrain and head through the same large queues to the transit lounge then onto our much smaller plane for the final flight home.  Once again the plane is late boarding then when we are onboard they tell us there is a problem and we won’t be leaving until the engineers have been and okayed it.  It is stinking hot so we ask for water and get a small drink.  Eventually we take off and arrive home to a hot, humid 39 degrees at 10.30pm.

We catch a taxi home only to have the teenager leave his wallet in the taxi with 700 AED in it as we’d changed all our money back at the airport!  Not a great end to an otherwise wonderful trip.

Our new apartment looks wonderful and my own bed beckons…

Rome is but a fleeting memory as normality returns.  I have to admit to being disappointed in Rome.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I loved the ruins and the history and the food (although after a week I think this would fade) but I didn’t love Rome.   I had this romantic vision of Rome and instead I found it dirty, sleazy and overbearingly hot & crowded.

The streets were filthy and everything was covered in graffiti.  American’s on the cruise with us thought it was the worst in the world along with Athens.  The ‘men’ were sleazy and I don’t mean the Italians, I mean all the imports who frequented the area we were in and did business touting their wares on the streets or off their backs.  I think our hotel experience also added to the overall atmosphere as once we were back inside our room there was nothing to do but lie on our hard bed and watch TV.  There was no lounge or anywhere you could go and sit in the hotel and outside you had to pay dearly to sit at a restaurant table.  Personal safety was the other big issue for me and having to be constantly alert to being robbed detracted from enjoying Rome and made me uneasy about venturing out at night.   Chow!  Welcome back to Abu Dhabi, The Sandpit.