Transatlantic Crossing

How Awesome is my title?!
I always wanted to say that...or do that.
Anyway....this is part one of my Italian Adventure.
Andiamo!

Saturday, October 13th.
I woke up so excited about the journey ahead. I had lots of packing to finish, a bit of laundry to do and a few more things to buy before my trip.
I decided to take my morning walk - who knew if I would get the chance to excercise in Italy...and I wanted to eat carbs guilt free.
I took my 5 mile walk, returned home and headed to the Starbucks, the drug store and finally the local Target.
When I returned home, I hopped in the shower, put the final load of laundry in the machine and began to agonize at great length about my outfit choices for the week.
Random thoughts that were going thru my head:

• we are staying on a farm Annette, it's not like you need to dress up
• we may be going to dinner in Rome one night....you want to look nice....hot italian men will be everywhere. and you don't want everyone to know you are an American.
• is 70 degrees cold or hot?
• what if it rains?
• should I have an outfit suitable for picking produce and feeding chickens?
• how many shoes do I need to bring.
• the more color choices of clothing, the more shoes I need, the bigger the bag...
• I need room for my shopping at the outlet!

You can sense the agony I was going thru. Finally, I decided to opt for a simple color scheme of black, white and grey. I brought along a pair of sneakers, clogs, heels and flats. Of course I wore the flats on the plane.

Then, the final decision - what to wear on the airplane. I knew I wanted to be comfortable, warm and at the same time not look like a slob. I opted for the Michael Kors suggestion that every woman should get on an airplane wearing white jeans, a black cashmere sweater and oversized sunglasses. Perfect! I had white jeans, a black sweater (sorry michael...not cashmere) and my fantastic knock off Prada black sunglasses! I felt very jet set, and very comfortable. *the sunglasses are a great camoflage for tired eyes, and help to block the early morning sun as you fly east towards the sun on your transatlantic flight.

As I crammed in the last of my items, I did the final scan before leaving.....passport? check! credit cards? check! ok, let's go.

I arrived at my Aunt's house and we began our happy dance because we were leaving for Italy! How decadent to fly to Italy for only 6 days....how awesome we were!

We arrived at the airport and headed to the Air Canada counter. We found an amazing fare on Air Canada that had us flying from DC to Toronto.....and then Toronto to Rome. As we checked in, the lady at the counter proved herself to not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.

She was having a difficult time grasping that despite the fact that we checked in together, and had 2 US passports and 2 pieces of luggage both going to Rome that we were traveling together. She handed me my Customs card to fill out, but did not give one to Marisa. When I asked for another ~ she stated that Marisa didn't need one since she was Canadian. Um hello? How is she Canadian with a US passport? Always good to see Homeland Security working well.

As we proceeded thru security, our excitement was growing! And then....we waited. The 2 hours to kill prior to departure tends to take some of the electricity out of the air.

Boarding the plane to Toronto ~ I was very encouraged. This was my first time flying on Air Canada. The plane was brand new and very roomy. We each had our own entertainment systems! I thought to myself...joy of joys, if this is the commuter plane.....wait until we get on the plane to Rome! (I could envision myself legs extended, seat reclined, eyemask in place, peacefully dreaming my way to Rome!)

We landed in Toronto behind schedule, we knew that we were going to have to move fast to make our connecting flight....we had less than one hour. Leaving the plane, we had our eyes ready to ensure we were going the right way.....we began to follow the signs for connections and customs. We knew that our bags had been checked all the way to Rome and that we would not have to pick them up and re-check them....we only had to get ourselves thru customs and onto our next plane.

Easier said, than done.

Now, it is possible that I am stupid. But if you were me, which sign would you have followed? Keeping in mind that we were connecting to a flight to Rome.

• US Connections
• Canadian Connections
• Customs

We followed the signs for Customs. We were not going to the US and we were not going to another Canadian destination.

Huge mistake. We ended up going to Customs and taking us out of the airport. When we got to the customs agent (who was little and very scary and mean) she asked why we had come to her? We should have followed the signs for US connections. Ummm? why?

Anyway, we had to exit the airport, and then go back in. We were now in a bit of trouble. Toronto's airport is huge! We started to run. It is not easy to look like the glamorous-Michael Kors-jet set-woman when you are frantically running thru the airport. We were like the beginning of Home Alone, only with 2 people.

As we made our way to security - we got behind the family with no sense of urgency, and no travel savvy at all. Apparently they have spent the last 6 years under a rock somewhere. Each one had to be told numerous times to take off thier shoes, take off your coat, take off your scarf, empty your pockets, put your purse on the belt...(i am not kidding.....4 adults, each one had to be instructed because apparently they did not think the same rules were going to apply to each of them) another side note - they were in their 30's ...we are not talking about people that should have an excuse to be so clueless. PAINFULL!

Finally, thru security, we began the final sprint to the gate - I figured that if we ran as fast as we could, they would just be closing the door to the plane when we arrived. I knew if I ran faster, perhaps I could beg them to keep the door open for Marisa. I said a little prayer to my Nonnie and went as fast as my feet would take me.

Prayers answered! The moment we arrived at our gate ~ an announcement was made......The flight had been delayed 45 minutes! Time to breathe and regroup....we had made it!