Arrivo a Roma

Maybe I’ll go to Amsterdam,
Maybe I’ll go to Rome,
And rent me a grand piano,
And put some flowers round my room…

Well, no room for a piano in this room. But nevertheless entirely delightful.

It’s now nearly 3
These notes written around noon. Typing them up here, and then I’m off to enjoy what remains of the afternoon, and maybe find a little square somewhere to bring us up to date.

Noon – out of the airport, on the train, leaving in a moment for the city’s central station. Cloudy but hot and muggy. In desperate need of a shower after that neverending day of flights.

Did manage a reasonable sleep on the plane, enough to keep me going. As the plane approached the terminal, groves of those umbrella pines, I think they’re called, that you always see when you see pictures of the countryside around Rome. Train’s about an hour, then making our way to the hotel one way or another.

It turned out to be another – owing to a metro closure/strike of some sort – several kilometres through the centre of Rome – it’s mad chaotic little streets.

Celebrities Galore!

8:55am – I think I just saw Michael Buble in a baseball hat getting off a plane and being whisked away in a golf cart.

18:20 (I’m on 24 hour time now so I can make sense of these airport signs) – Toronto. I think Jim Cuddy may have been on my plane. Surely one of these celebrity sightings was not real…?

Dr Strangelove on the plane, and maybe 30 minutes of sleep. Here for another hour or so. A long way to go. A much needed glass of white wine in the airport bar. Now just waiting. This airport is massive!

Plan for the plane is:
1) Take a melatonin as we board (they take about 8 hours to wear off)
2) Have a scotch on the plane (I’ve already had dinner – airplane pizza, not as bad as you might think – and what with my time shift, my body thinks its bedtime)
3) Strap on my eye mask, and hope that the last two weeks pay off and I can manage 6 or 7 hours of sleep – 6 or 7 broken hours no doubt, but hopeful all the same.

The weather is beautiful here in Toronto (but thank goodness I’m not staying!)