Buon giorno from numero sei undici!

Oh what a circus, oh what a show!  Continental has gone to town over the trip of two Mac geeks flying to Rome....

Poetic license, I know.

So let me say that being in Chicago for my birthday was a very good thing, although the amount of time spent there was near to insignificant.  We will have to go back and spend a week some time in September so that I get to see Navy Pier and go up the Sears Tower like a typical tourist.  

I did get the 2nd gen iPhone out of the trip there, though, a nice, shiny black 16Gig iPhone!

The day after the birthday, we got up at 5 after another night plagued with jet lag, headed out to O'Hare, and checked in.  Naturally, when trying to get boarding passes the night before, my passport information had disappeared from the Continental website, so no early check-in.

When we got there, we were ticketed for the first two legs (Chicago to Newark, Newark to Rome), but the third leg (Rome to Genoa) we had a little slip of paper that said "this is not a boarding ticket," meaning check in at Al Italia in Rome.  

First flight went well, got in to Newark on time, maybe even a little early, but my knee began to act up.  A lot.  We went into the President's Club, put our stuff in lockers, and then headed out through the terminal in search of cash machines, the currency exchange, and lunch.  Lunch was at Gallaghers, yummy!  But the knee kept throbbing, and getting worse.  

Then all heck broke loose.  We went down to the currency exchange machine, and my knee buckled, cracked and was in general unpleasant.  We then got to the ATM that did currency exchange and withdrew 200 Euros each, and walked back to the lounge.  We went on the personal conveyor belt, and were walking slowly, and my left shoe lost its heel.  Wayne picked it up, and we put it back in, but I wasn't confident.  Later, the right heel came off as well, and we never could find it.

We got back to the lounge, and changed seats twice, and I really couldn't tolerate the pain level any more, so I was out in search of Motrin.  Got it finally, popped two dry, and got online.

When the time came, we boarded the plane, and got into their upgraded seats, woo hoo!  (Of course, when you pay both dollars and miles, you are likely to get upgraded when there are empty seats...)  We were approached by the Al Italia liaison, and informed that we would be escorted to the club when we debarked so that we could use the showers and freshen up before our connecting flight.  Nice!  

But then we wound up sitting on the flight line for a very long time, and were significantly delayed.  Visions of my flight to Russia were entering my mind, the time where my flight was delayed, we arrived an hour late, and I was rescheduled onto another flight to Moscow, and my luggage didn't make it.  But it looked like we were only going to land a few minutes late.

Finally, we took off.  

Let me tell you, flying to Europe is quite different than flying to Guam.  The menus came out, and we had choices among osso bucco, halibut with shrimp, chicken with mozzarella di buffalo, just to name a few.  The appetizers were lobster bisque, quiche, Italian pastas.  The whole thing was just amazing.  Took my mind off the delay.

After fitful sleep, we landed, and got off the plane.  No one to meet us and bring us to the club.  We finally headed to the connecting area, went through customs, and headed to the Al Italia desk.  I couldn't find my little slip saying "This is not a boarding pass"!  EEK!!  But I had my passport and baggage tickets, so no worries.  Until we got to the desk and were told that I already was issued a boarding pass.  

What, did my one lost heel miraculously get off the plane with the voucher and sign itself in?

Oh, did I mention she gave me a completely different flight number and time?

Anyway, we checked in, got boarding passes and headed to the gate.  We waited in the middle of a herd of people, and tried to listen to the PA.  It was like PAs of eras gone by, with Europe never upgrading to new speaker systems.  I kept mentally comparing it to Japan and Korea, with Italy losing out big time.

Boarded the plane, headed to Genoa, and finally good luck.  All our baggage arrived!  I could have danced.  Walking through the customs was a breeze, and we got our taxi to our hotel without the usual usurious rates.  Very tired puppies, we checked in and set up shop upstairs.  (Naturally we could not function without setting up internet, etc)

Following showers (Wayne unable to shave thanks to a broken sink stopper that we disabled later in the day), we went downstairs to look for the shoe repairman.  We were given vague directions that there were two in the square behind the hotel.  Gamely, we went out in the rain and spent probably the better part of an hour looking.  No luck.  Went back to the hotel, had lunch, asked the concierge for directions (all of which were very vague -- go to the Tabac and turn left -- and met David Pogue!!!

Who's David Pogue, do you ask?  He's a technology columnist for the New York Times who also has a video podcast that we watch.  And enjoy.  Yeah, yeah, geeks you say.  Well, it's true! Even the cats have a .Mac account, Rocky_and_Oscar@mac.com.  When I told Wayne who it was, David asked if we were fellow geek cruisers.  And we are.  We're here to be on the Mac Mania 8 cruise set up by Geek Cruises.  After talking for about 10 minutes, we parted ways with David giving us the card to a restaurant that he and his family had visited, and we set out.  

We went along the route the concierge gave us.  No luck.  But there was a seamstress.  We went in her shop, and neither understood the other.  I finally pulled out the shoes, and she rattled out words to me.  I didn't understand.  She then saw Wayne, and fired of the fastest Italian I've ever heard, ending with "capische?"  That, I understood.  "No capische, Inglese

," the response.  She then took us outside, pointed, and said "bar!"  So we took off.

Still no luck, so another 30 minutes of wandering, and we found the restaurant recommended by David Pogue.  

We headed back a different way, saw a shoe store, went in and asked if there was a cobbler nearby.  They nodded and started to talk simultaneously.  I motioned for them to write it down, they did, and we found the place in under 3 minutes!  On Piazza Savonarola, we found the shop operated by Tony Calzolaio.  Tony "Shoe" Calzolaio.  =]  After a few minutes of not understanding one another, we pulled out our relative calendars, and agreed that the shoes would be ready by 8 am Wednesday, 2 1/2 hours before we would be headed out on our cruise.  Hooray!

Funny side note on the shoe store.  As I was asking for directions, I also asked the ladies if they carried shoes in a size 44 (please note that they were 5'1" at the most), and they looked at me aghast -- "For women? Oh, my, no!"  I had to laugh.

Back to the Star President for naps, the Daily Show (the Obama interview), and then out to the Ristorante Galletto al Mattone for dinner.  We arrived at 7:30, and had the place to ourselves for about a half an hour.  We managed antipasti, first course, and then I had some cheese for dessert.  Nice meal, and after chatting with the waiter, we were treated to a complimentary digestive -- also known as limoncello.  Perfect!

Now to sleep, hopefully, this evening, and to go to the Genoa aquarium tomorrow.

Ciao!