Oct 15 – Fiumicino, Italy

Weather – 24º, sunny

we are here

Steps – 14,878

I’ve never met an overnight flight that I liked - yesterday’s flight was no different. Fortunately, on the flight we were pods, so it was the best that it could have been. Neither of us got much sleep, but were at least able to stretch out, and weren’t battling a stranger for arm rest space.

I watched Michael – exactly as I had heard it would be and Power Ballad – passed the time but would not really recommend.

We have been hearing horror stories about European immigration. Today’s experience was fine. Probably took 10 minutes, most of that time was walking back and forth through the stanchions. By the time we got to the baggage

Hotel Tiber

carrousel, we still had to wait – not long, maybe 15 minutes.

A car was waiting to take us the 11-minute drive from the airport to the town of Fiumicino. Because of our loyalty status on Regent, we have rides on either side of our cruise provided. The cruise we are taking is actually 2 cruises, so we are getting double the number of rides provided by Regent. Alessio, our driver did not mess around getting us to his car. We zigged and zagged through the airport and parking garage at break-neck speed!

11 minutes later we were at the Hotel Tiber. This basic hotel in Fiumicino is

sunset apertivo

where we’ll be for the next 3 days. The room may be basic, but it is large with 2 balconies (only 1 has chairs) and adequate AC. I’ve never been in a hotel when the pullout couch is made into a bed without us asking - interesting. Before I saw the actual bed, I thought for a minute that that WAS the bed. We considered assembling it back into a couch, but the space to lay our stuff is nice and we don’t need the floor space – and…one extra pillow!

We unpacked a bit, showered off the grim of a travel day, and took a nap.

heaven

Once refreshed, we found the hotel’s roof-top bar for our welcome spritzes before wandering the town.

the prices!!!

Our hotel is directly on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western Mediterranean. Despite the sound of this being charming, it is very industrial. Nonetheless, we can see the sea and it isn’t Fiumicino Pride – it doesn’t seem like we’ll be kept up by any thumping bass, I won’t say anything definitive until tomorrow, but things are looking good.

We wandered along the sea path for about half an hour until we found a beach bar we liked the look of. Most bars/restaurants have ‘aperitivo hour’ – a drink and chips or other crunchy snack for a set price…ours was €8, not terrible and the view of the sunset and beach setting was lovely.

We were a bit too beat to find another place for dinner, so we opted for a trip to the local piggly-wiggly. A litre of wine for €1.39! and a pack of proportioned Parmigiano

inflight entertainment

Reggiano! I may not eat anything else while I’m here – prepackaged Parmigiano Reggiano…mama mia!

inflight entertainment