Leaving Greece

Monday, August 19

We haven't even unpacked, just hung our traveling clothes in the closet, so we take our showers, fix a cup of coffee, and bid the control tower good-bye.

Once checked out we wait in the lobby for an Alitalia person to wheel us across the road, check us in and through security and who deposits us in the Business Class lounge, where we have some fruit and pastries. Then Philipe is back to get me to the plane, where I am hoisted in again, although I have to hop to my seat on the 2nd row.

I watch the moutains and the sea float past us as a delicious vegetable lasagne is served, and before we know it, we're in Rome.

The Rome airport and personnel, as far as wheel-chairs are concerned, is a different story. My own chair has been dispatched to Rio and I get off the plane in what looks to be a cool orange chair. We're dropped in a small hot enclosure for the elderly and infirm, and then ignored, and this is when I discover I cannot move. There's no way for me to get this chair to roll. Also the frazzled woman in charge pays little attention to us as she fields people with close connections and fights with her own staff. But an hour passes and so does my patience and otherwise boyant mood. When a motorized cart finally is liberated to drive us to the other side of the airport, a favorite bracelet that I'm wearing breaks and pearls scatter all over the floor. No way we can retrieve them. We drive on in silence, are procecessed through another station, and finally deposited in the windowless Alitalia lounge - one of the lowest ranking lounges in the world,  I have now discovered on the internet. And the pickings are slimmer indeed.

I sit in a chair until Oswaldo wheels me up into the shopping area, but unless you want to pay 1,300 euros for an Hermés beach tote, there's really nothing for us there, and I get very grumpy. Oswaldo can barely push the thing as well, so his mood is not the best either. We have an icecream in silence, but cheer up when we find a design story with fun, if still expensive, stuff. Then we retreat to our lounge, where I am sitting finishing this text, while Oswaldo snores softly next to me. Our flight leaves in another 2 hours.

I'm glad we went ahead with the trip. It was not always easy, but Oswaldo finally got some exercise, haha, and I learnt to count my blessings.

Thanks for reading. Next year is Italy :)
Adio,
Siri