No cycling this segment. It was nice to enjoy again some of Rome’s eternal light atmosphere. In the meanwhile, we missed many other aspects of our Japan experience (food, bidet toilet, cleanest, etc). We were glad we arrived a few days ahead of the pre-wedding activities in order to recover from our jet lag. We were mesmerized by how well the activities and the entire wedding day unfolded in some beautiful Italian countryside. It was our pleasure to meet the groom’s parents and siblings for the first time and many of the newlyweds’ friends from both Canada and the UK. As quickly as folks showed up to the hotel ahead of the wedding, they were also quick to return to their own home destination the next day. As for us, Victoria returned to London for some sightseeing for few more weeks, the newlyweds went for a well-deserved rest at an Italian costal resort and we embarked on our flight back to Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although our Etihad Airway flight check-in was chaotic, the 11 hour flight to Abu Dhabi was surprisingly smooth. The seats offered several more inches of leg room than what we experienced on Air Canada flying to South Korea. The flight attendant crew worked very efficiently and served us two tasty hot meals along the way. It seemed we managed to nap more than expected while occupying the window and middle seats. After reaching the Abu Dhabi airport, we had a 2.5 hours connection lay over for our flight to Rome. Although this second flight segment was only 6 hours, we both felt like it was longer than our earlier flight. Upon arriving at 7am at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci\u2013Fiumicino Airport, we passed through the efficient immigration controls and later retrieved our duffel bag from one of the luggage carousels. We learned, thanks to our Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Credit Card, that we could benefit of a 3 hour stay at an airport lounge outside of the arrival area. Hence we enjoyed a relaxing time with free wifi and access to a plentiful breakfast buffet (including a great espresso coffee selection) until 11am. After leaving the lounge, we opted to take an airport bus to Rome’s Termini train station. In Italy, I did not bother purchasing a local SIM instead I relied on Jenny’s eSIM hot spot whenever I needed access to the internet on the road. After disembarking from the airport bus, we took the subway at the Termini station to the nearest station to our initial accommodation in Rome. We were pleased when our B&B owner allowed us to check-in to our room at 1pm, i.e. 2 hours ahead of schedule. After a well-deserved shower, we went out to find a Tangerine-friendly bank ATM in order to pay our B&B owner our 24\u20ac tourist accommodation tax. Our first attempt to locate the closest ATM proved to be fruitless and a waste of time. After walking much further, we finally found a BNP Paribas ATM. We stopped at a grocery store for some snacks and long craved wine bottle on our return walk. In the evening, we had dinner at a hole-in-the-wall pizzeria shop. On the way back to our B&B, we walked through the Trevi fountain area. We were blown away by the size of the tourist crowd at this site. We did not recall seeing so many tourists during our 2011 summer visit. By the mid evening, we were looking forward to some sleep to recover from our long flight from Osaka. We walked over 11kms.<\/p>\n\n\n
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