Home again, hungry and tired

Well, after a 24 hour travel day, it felt good to get home.

We rose early (05:30 h) and managed to get everything organized to head for the airport by 06:30 h. I was glad to have reconnoiterred the route yesterday and wasn't feeling that stressed out getting to the airport. Genoa airport is fairly small and was easy to get our bearings. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 07:50 h from Genoa to Rome (1 hour 10 min). The rental car drop off was simple, just a key drop. AlItalia flight was packed with business people, suits and attache cases. Noticed that very few passengers went to the bagagli area getting off the flight, so when Karens bag didn't show up along with the only about 20 bags off the plane, we had cause for concern (bags were not checked through to Calgary). Waited around a bit, then checked with the AlItalia bagagli counter and in what seemed to be an all too routine excercise, they gave me some contact information for Toronto and a tracking number and some assurances that they would move Karen's bag on to Calgary in due course. Needless to say, this did not improve Karen's enthusiasm for our Italian adventure. Anyway, with 3/4 of our bags in tow, off we went to try and find our way to the Air Canada counter. A couple of "Bobbies" from Manchester were helpful and sympathetic (Champions League Football finals in Rome this week). Checked in at Air Canada who were not able to give us any encouragement about our lost bag (not their problem).

Flight from Rome to Toronto was more or less on schedule (9 hours 45 min) and customs in TO was routine. Checked with the AlItalia baggage counter in TO and they indicated that the bag had been located and would be delivered to the house within a couple of days - here's hoping.

Finished customs and found our way to the connecting gate - after two weeks in Italy, first thing to do was get a Starbucks coffee. Flight to Calgary (4 hours 15 min) uneventful and arrived at 20:30 h, or about 04:30 h Italy time. Got home at about 21:30 for a nice round 24 hour travel day. Everyone just fell into bed.

Stanco, fame e sete was the reccurent theme on the trip, to quote my Dad, great trip, glad to be home.