Killing a day

In anticipation of our 5h night flight departing at 2300 to Reykjavik, we slept in and woke around 0800. We delayed our breakfast a little then packed up carefully. We wore our hot weather gear and packed our cold weather gear separately so we could change at the airport.

As we checked out at 1100, we still had no idea where we could kill our long day ahead. No options presented to us really appealed. The receptionist suggested Trastavere, a traditional neighbourhood with some nice laid back restaurants and cafes. This had kinda crossed my mind but when the transport by bus “H” was made clear to us, it all seemed easier.

We took the bus from outside Termini station across the river Tiber and alighted. The restaurant that had been recommended to us was closed for the holidays so we wandered around until we found a reasonably priced place that was cool/shaded and also had wifi.

I ordered a salmon salad and Kim a breakfast, but as always, we swapped halfway. His meal was forgotten and he waited for quite a while but that (along with some admin on the computer) helped kill three hours.

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The staff at the cafe were quite concerned with people who didn’t finished their meals (twice). I think they genuinely take pride in their food. In one case, they didn’t charge for the soup that the customer didn’t like (she thought it would be cold summer soup).

The weather became quite hot and the breeze felt like it was coming from a fan oven. We finished a whole “Absolut Vodka” bottle of water and more during our stay there and were still thirsty. Our idea of remaining cool and dry didn’t quite work.

I got sweatier going back by bus to collect our luggage, then walking the short distance to the airport bus at Termini station. It was quite a chaotic scene with large numbers of people waiting and four buses departing (three to Fiumicino and one to Ciampino). We managed to get on the least popular one which left before the others but we were still sweaty from waiting the five or so minutes on board.

I’d like to visit Italy during Autumn next time. This time, combined with northern Europe, it was a delicate balance between the summer finishing up there and being still too hot in Italy.

We arrived at the airport about 5h before departure, with a small hope that bag-drop for Vueling to Reykjavik would be open. Unfortunately, like most airlines, they only accept bags 3h prior. That took away our chance of using the airside lounge and having a shower. Waiting landside wasn’t any worse than waiting in a cafe in town, so no complaints.We dropped our bags 3h prior and went airside. We managed to visit the lounge for about 15 minutes but it was hardly worth it. The food was getting quite dry and miserable but we had a cuppa tea and some soft drink before killing the rest of our time at the gate area.

The flight left on-time from a remote gate. We had three seats each near the front and took half a sleeping pill each. Kim slept the entire flight till descent while I dozed mildly.