Hello, Italy! Glad to be here.
The flight over was great; no bumps, no crying babies. We arrived at the airport in Rome, and, as usual, departed the plane onto the tarmac and boarded a bus to the terminal. (Someone really needs to tell these guys about jetways.) Customs was quick, and both our bags came to Italy, too. So off we went to find the auto rental office (no easy task at this airport). But in about an hour after landing, we were loading up our Fiat to start the adventure.
Unfortunately, neither one of us slept hardly at all (but I watched “The Great Gatsby” and decided that my bocce parties are probably more fun than his soirees). Anyway, I digress. We plugged in the GPS and headed out to Alfedena. About an hour outside of Rome, the message comes on that the battery on the GPS is ready to die. WAIT… it’s plugged in. What up? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr… the cigarette lighter receptacle is dead. Uh oh. Fortunately, being the Girl Scout that I am, I had packed a battery charger and extra cords for every kind of electronic device you can think of. So we pulled into a rest stop, and out came the bag of cords. YAY… I had one that fit! We’re saved. Of course, I also had printed a chart of the drive, so we could have done it the old fashioned way, but it wouldn’t have been pretty.
So now we have toothpicks holding our eyes open. We arrived at the hotel, and Anna, the concierge, came out with open arms when she saw me. We exchanged greetings and shared news and then settled into our room. Jodi had made a silent bet to herself that when we arrived (in spite of being dead tired), that I would head into town for a glass of wine. She won the bet. Off we go. We sat at the sidewalk cafe and took in the sights of this beautiful little town.
After a brief walk around, this was Jodi’s idea, we returned to the hotel and decided that a drink at the bar was in order. Funny what exhaustion does to the brain. Amber, our bartender was delightful and is our new best friend. 
But wait… do we finally go to bed to get some sleep, nooooooooooo. We decide to go to the supermarket and get some things at the deli to make sandwiches because we’re “still” too tied to go to a restaurant. But I must admit, eating grinders on the balcony overlooking the mountains was a fun way to end the day. And now… sleep. More fun tomorrow.
Alfedena AQ 