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Published: November 19th 2006
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Nov 10th 10am (London time) We are about to land at Heathrow airport, about one hour late but since we have a 4 hour layover, it does not affect our arrival in Rome. I slept but not soundly, and only about 4 hours, so I am bound to be tired later. I dreamt in Italian! “Qualcosa de bere?” - guess I’m thirsty. Can’t wait to get to Rome, but I am even looking forward to the layover at Heathrow.
2:15 (London time) We just boarded the flight to Rome. It is a two hour flight and there is a one hour time change, so we will arrive at 5:30pm. The three hours at Heathrow went quickly - lunch at Pret’s sandwich shop, and I spent 10 minutes on the Internet; sent the kids an email. I did some yoga stretches and I feel pretty good. I think I’ll make it through the transition without jetlag. I am going to listen to the Italian lessons on the plane one last time.
4:00 (Rome time) We were a bit delayed - just took off. I read this quote in an essay titled “Rome, the Art of Living” from “Italy, a Love
Aerial Sunset
I took this sunset photo from the plane at about 5pm Rome time. Story”, it is attributed to Santayana: “Experience is a mere peephole through which glimpses come down to us of eternal things.” We are flying over beautiful countryside, visible between a maze of small white clouds. The clouds below us seem to be standing still, yet the misty cloud we are flying through is streaming past the wings of the plane, illuminated by the sun. The sun is so bright up here above most of the clouds. We have been ascending through layers of these clouds, each layer seeming to move at a different pace. “Experience” is down there, in the city, the countryside, even in the North Sea which we are flying over as we approach France. The clouds are the ever changing filters through which come these “glimpses of eternal things.” (Altitude seems to cause overworked metaphors.)
5:00 (Rome time) We are now flying over the Swiss Alps. They are gorgeous, snow covered on the side we are approaching (I guess that is the North face?) Beautiful expanses of unblemished white, with the outer ranges receding to the horizon and the sun starting to set into peach, blue, and white. I took some photos but I am not
Swiss Alps
We flew over the Swiss Alps en route from London to Rome. sure how well they came out.
(about 15 minutes later) I fell asleep and have no idea what woke me up, but there is a breathtaking sunset. We are flying over water and a coastline. I don’t know my geography well, but perhaps the coastline is Corsica? We are flying South and I am on the right side of the plane. No - I guess that must be the Northeast coast of Italy; there are islands visible to the right. The sun has almost finished setting; there is no longer enough light to see anything except for the lights from below and the last of the glowing pink-orange sunset. This time the photos came out well - I am glad that I woke up!
Sono mezzanotee (It is midnight)
We took the train from the airport to the Termini stazione, then a cab to our hotel, the Olympic Aurum on Via Propenzio. Linda and I are sharing a room. It is plain but roomy, with lots of places for our stuff (and I do love to unpack :-) and enough room for me to to Yoga in the morning. We unpacked, then walked to dinner at Borgo Antico. I had a wonderful insalata with apples and pine nuts, then a casserole of potatoes, truffles, and olive oil with melted fromaggio. It was molto bene! We are meeting downstairs for breakfast at 8:30 and I want to start the day with some yoga so I best get to sleep!
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Nancy Drew
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Excellent TravelBlog
Leslie shared the travelblog URL with me. Very well written, Tammie! I returned to Rome in my mind (I was there in 1985) while reading it. The TB had Nancy totally engrossed. Sounds like y'all had a fab time. Will return to read the rest. Thanks!