We took half board at Locanda Rosati and had an enjoyable dinner with other hotel guests, the hotel owner and his family, all seated around one table—16 people in all. Dinner was served family style, starting with a platter of salad, eggplant and stuffed eggs, moving on to an amazing pasta with gorgonzola sauce (we took seconds), followed by a goat stew, spinach and potatoes, ending with a chocolate cream cake and liquors. Wine was served with each course.  Near us sat couples from Holland and Canada. Good food and good company.

Saturday, May 20

Orvieto to Zurich

The drive to Rome’s Leonardo di Vinci Airport took less than two hours and was uneventful. We had directions from mappy.com, but really didn’t need them. From the autostrada we just followed signs with an airplane icon once we got close to Rome. I’d read that it’s difficult to locate where to return the car once inside the airport, but we saw numerous signs saying “Hertz” or “car return,” so it seemed easy to us. Hertz was located in “C” on the fifth level of the parking structure. Returning the car was quick and easy. After all the checking for dents and scratches in Siena, no one bothered to look at the car when we returned it. They deducted the cost of the motor oil from what we owed for the second driver without question.

We allowed a lot of unnecessary time for returning the car, so we were very early to the airport and had to wait for someone to work the Swiss Air desk before we could check in. Once checked in we had lunch in the cafeteria on the upper level. We then met with Italian bureaucracy. It took 20 minutes to get through security—a line looping left and right. I found it interesting that once outside the U.S. we did not need to remove our shoes. The next line—and it was short—was for passport control. Actually, there were two lines and they weren't moving. They briefly opened a third line and shrewd Maritza was quick to scoot through. I lingered in a line of about 20 people for 40 minutes. Once at the desk, it took about 15 seconds to process me through. On top of that, we had to take a shuttle to our gate. Some people surely missed their flights.

We arrived in Zurich around 4:30 pm and took the shuttle to our last hotel, the Renaissance by the airport. I cashed in 20,000 Marriott points.  The point level went up to 25,000 after I booked, so I'm glad I booked early.  This is the third time in a little over a year that a hotel has raised its point level after I’ve reserved. Last year I wanted to add a third night at the Sheraton in Paris, but they had raised the point level from 12,000 a night to 25,000 a night.  So, the Renaissance was sold out and they put us in a small suite with one bed in the bedroom and roll-in bed in the parlor. I was concerned that they were going to bring in a cot and expressed my displeasure, but it all turned out just fine and comfortable.

We had dinner in their Asian restaurant. At this point I stopped writing in my journal altogether and going by memory I had an excellent Thai curried chicken. I can’t remember what else we ordered but we were satisfied.

Sunday, May 21

Zurich to Los Angeles

All good things must come to an end. We had a 12:10 pm flight out of Zurich and got to the airport early. We had breakfast in the first class lounge and learned that our flights were over-sold. We were happy to have seat assignments. I don’t remember much about the flights except that they were long—nine hours to DC and almost five hours more to LA with two hours for the connection. Maritza’s husband, mother and dog Chloe were there to greet us.

Until next year...happy traveling.