Wednesday 10th April
Day 9: Goodbye Greece, Hello Italy
We had a lazy morning. No need to rush as we had a 1:30 pick up. We checked out of our hotel and left our bags there as we went to explore the Museum of Ancient Thera where we got to see some of the artifacts that we learnt about yesterday on our tour of the archaeological site of Akrotiri. After that we went for coffee. Saw the view of the Caldera from the town of Fira (where we stayed) and then headed back to maccas for lunch.
We still had over an hour before our pickup so we decided to head back to the hotel and wait in the foyer - at least they had wifi.
It’s a good job we went back early as our pick up was 20 mins early.
Once we got to the airport we had to wait outside as it wasn’t time to check in. There was heaps of people at the airport as it had been closed yesterday with all flights cancelled due to the strong winds. So it was a bit like organised chaos.
Once they told us we could enter the airport, we joined the que for checkin and ran into some people we met yesterday on the tour. They were on the same flight as us, so it was nice to have someone to chat with while we waited.
Due to the flights being cancelled yesterday there was extra flights on today and as a result our flight was delayed by over an hour. This resulted in a lot of people, in a tiny airport, and not enough seats for everyone. If you got up for just a second you could loose your seat. So between the four of us - placing bags, jumpers and even our feet on the chairs - we managed to hold onto our seats.
When they finally let us board our flight we had to walk down a bunch of stairs, hop onto a bus, which drove about 100m, then get onto the plane. Seemed like a waste of time but hey that’s how they worked.
We arrived in Italy at 6:20pm local time. We were very thankful to have landed and made it to Italy.
First order of business - get to the hotel
Second - find some food.
Our hotel is very close to fountain of Trevi. We went for a walk and found a place for dinner, which was near a fountain.
It is still sinking in that we are actually in Rome. Now it’s time to sleep and rest up as we leave at 7:30 tomorrow morning for a tour of city.
A cast of a wooden table they found
One of the paintings (frescos) on the wall of the house of Ladies.
One of the more well known frescos
An idol of a bull that would have been handed down through the generations
You can see the shadow of the clouds on the water.
The first of many pizza and pasta dishes we shall have in Italy