April 24, 2019 Wednesday
We got up around 8 am and had the breakfast buffet in the hotel. It is our last morning here. It was good as usual. We went to the room and finished packing and getting ready. Sandy weighed her bags. We left the room and checked out about 10:30 am. Our driver was to be at the hotel by 11:30 am. We stayed in the lobby area and waited. The driver arrived on time with his Mercedes Van, nicely appointed. He drove us to the airport, about a 45 minute ride.
We checked in at Swiss Air with no problem. We took care of some VAT taxes and then went through security with me being “randomly selected” to test my carry on for explosives. They were negative.
We walked through duty free and got a few items to get rid of our change. It is difficult to get money for loose coins anywhere. We went to the lounge upstairs which multiple airlines share. It was fine. It had lunch meats, breads, beverages and so forth. Nothing real fancy but all the basics. We ate a sandwich and waited in the comfortable chairs. Our flight had been delayed 30 minutes but we were told of that before leaving the hotel.
The plane was small, business class area was what I would call utilitarian — just the basics and that is all. We had extra leg room but there were three seats on each side like in the rest of the plane. The seats were firm, hard and had little cushion support. They only reclined about an inch, not much. The only thing that made it business class is that no one sat in the middle seat and of course, the service.
We were offered bottle water before take off. Then we were given small chocolate bars. After we had been up in the air, we were served a snack of quiche, salmon patee, and a fruit dessert. All were good. We got to Zurich a little later than they had hoped as we had to stay on the tarmac a while before we took off.
In Zurich, we walked through duty free area and tried to find some good chocolates. They had some reduced chocolates from Easter and Sandy latched on to them. We had to walk a ways to get to the “A” gates. I was lucky to find a luggage cart and used that. We found a sign to the airline lounge on the second floor and went there.
The Swiss Air Lounge is actually two lounges. One for First Class, well marked, and a second smaller entrance not labeled well for Business Class. I have one word for the Business Class Lounge for Swiss Air at the “A” gate area: TERRIBLE!.
First it is not well marked. Second, after getting entrance and getting past the hostesses, you then have to climb a small flight of stairs to get to the lounge. Sandy had a roll bag with her duffle bag full. I had my duffle bag and my small carry on bag. Sandy had a hard time getting her luggage up. She refused my help at first but I prevailed and got her stuff up to the top.
The lounge is SMALL and not well laid out. There was one employee wearing a chef hat and one other employee helping out. It was FULL of people and we were able to find ONE seat. All the seats, the bar chairs, side benches were occupied by people. And their carry on luggage made it even more difficult to maneuver. They had little assortment of any food. The bar and wine area was serve yourself, pour your own drink and find your mixer and a glass if you could. The snack food area was just a few Ritz crackers and two different cheeses, most of which were gone. The section for glasses were almost gone of any glass wear. It was just too small, inadequate totally. We stayed just long enough to see it was poor.
Sandy made it down the steps and we went to the gate area. The accommodations there were good. They were busy and seats were full but they were nice. We had a full plane according to the check in people. We boarded on time. The plane was similar to the other one, utilitarian, just the basics. We got water and chocolate again. We had a 35 minute delay on the ground secondary to high winds. After we got up in the air, we were served a snack again, this time a Caprese salad with capers, bread and a dessert. It was good. I got a red wine. The flight was smooth, especially the landing.
We made it to Rome OK. We had to walk quite a distance from the plane to the luggage retrieval area. Our tour guide was in the area with a sign with our name. We talked to her and I got the luggage after a brief wait.
We met our driver then we had to walk a ways to get to the car. She told us things about Rome. Tomorrow we are scheduled to take a tour of the Vatican Museum, the Sistene Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. He will pick us up at 7:15 am.
It took about 40 minutes from the airport to the apartment. I had told the apartment manager by email about the delay at the airport. The pilot was only 20 minutes later than scheduled, he made up time on the way. I got a call in the car on the way to the apartment from the man who was to check us in. He told me to call once we were on the street near the apartment. I did but he said he had another person he had to check in and he was headed to that apartment. That was not a good sign.
We got to the apartment around 8:30 pm. I called the gentleman again and he said he would be at our apartment in about 30 minutes. Our tour guide stayed with us. The driver left. We were outside the apartment building on the threshold area. A nice gentlemen from New York saw us standing there and engaged us in a conversation. He was staying in the building and he let us in the vestibule area.
At 8:55 pm our tour guide called the fellow and was told “just another 30 minutes”. We talked to her. She is from the Ukraine. Her son lives in Toronto, Canada and her mother moved there also recently. She met her husband who was from Rome and she moved to Rome. She has been a tour guide about 5 years and really enjoys it. She has two children. We told her about some of our adventures on this trip. This helped pass the time away.
Around 9:40 pm the young man showed up. We thanked our tour guide for staying with us over an hour and helping us pass the time away and taking some of our anxiety away. He let us in to the apartment and gave a quick, very quick tour of the apartment going over where the fuse box was, how to use the toilet and not put any toilet paper in it, the kitchen area and the washer/dryer, etc. It is a large apartment with the kitchen upstairs. It was about 10:15 when he left. I had to sign another contract and pay 56 Euro in tax. I knew about the tax beforehand.
The Kitchen is on the second floor with a staircase going up from both sides. On each wall of the staircase is a huge picture of a nude woman. I did not include in these pictures as Jackson may be viewing. There is a huge skylight in the center of the living room which has remote control to open and close the windows. There is another skylight over the front door area.
We put some clothes in the washing machine and went to bed. We were both tired. We have to get up early in the am.