Day 16 was of course the transit day back home. I got up early to clean up and finish packing then had breakfast at the hotel. I really liked the brand of yogurt they had. After eating I checked out of the hotel and made the brief walk to the train station. The Leonardo Express was completely full for the 8:22 departure. I had bought the ticket the night before but I probably didn't need to as they never checked it. The train was too full probably. In any event I did see the route this ride as the sun was fully up by this point. There is a lot of graffiti along the way.
I got to the airport and checked in but the baggage check conveyors were broken so had to wait for a guy with a cart to come pick up the bags of those of us waiting. This meant the security line got longer but I guess I was plenty early so it was of little consequence. After getting in I checked the shops and bought a snack then waited patiently for the flight.
The flight to Rome was 2 hours long and I had a window seat on the A320 with no one directly next to me. I did doze off a bit as the only entertainment was the airplane GPS.
Arriving on Heathrow I had to rescreen security then wasted the time before my flight boarded which was around 2 hours or so. We had a general boarding which involved riding a bus to a remote space and climbing stairs onto the plane yet again (time 3). This plane was a 777. I apparently got assigned a middle seat but lucked out because the guy on the aisle didn't like the tall guy behind him so moved to the only other seat on the plane. This gave me am aisle seat with no one next to me. The in flght entertainment was individual seat but you had to choose between set channels. I had hoped to watch Despicable Me bit of course that was the broken channel. Instead I watched Agora which was odd as a first film. I think it was anti-Christian which I liked. The meal was ok but they called the pudding creme brûlée which was wrong. There was a significant pause to the entertainment system then I watched Toy Story 3 which was ok but not as good as the first two. The sound was a bit crackly which may not have helped. After finishing that movie it wasn't long before they started another set so I started watching Jonah Hex which seemed bad but I couldn't finish it as the flight didn't have enough time left.
The start of the descent was very bumpy and a few people sounded fairly nervous but it smoothed out after a couple minutes. I guess there was some serious winds in the jet stream to contend with. Then we got a bit bumpy as we were in the final moments of landing but all in all it was a fairly easy flight. After getting off the airplane the passport control line was short. With its humble beginnings on the cart in Rome my bag did actually make it across to Boston. It was within the first 20 bags off the carousel, and customs was a breeze, the one funny part being the passport guy's stamp on the customs form was hideously wet and it wasn't dry by the time I went to the customs guy. I saved him from smudging himself so he pushed me right through I think. My brother was there to pick me up and the ride home was easy. All in all as travel days go it could have been a lot worse though I will never like having to ride a bus to a plane somewhere on the tarmac. At least I didn't have a huge bag to stuff in the overheads to carry up the stairs to the plane. That definitely caused difficulty for a few people.
Italy was a lot of fun. The drama with the car and the GPS aside I had a blast. Seriously though, don't stay in Palermo if you go to Sicily.
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