The Canceled Flight

On Monday morning I took the slow ferry down the lake to Como for my last, long look at the lake. Tomorrow I was due to fly out at 8:30, so I decided to get to Milano by Monday night so I could get up early and easily make it to the airport. In Como I took the train directly to Milano and changed trains once in Soronno, and ended up at the Malpensa Milan Airport. Once there I took a shuttle to my hotel for my last night, or so I thought, in Italia.

Tuesday morning I boarded the shuttle to the airport, found the ticket counter, and discovered that my flight had been cancled. I was pretty bummed out until the agent asked me if I would be willing to fly to Rome and spend the night there, Delta's treat. I jumped on it!

So I got my ticket to Roma and made my way to the uscita (gate). Wow, it was only about 10 AM and it was only about an hour flight to Rome...I would have most of the day to quickly discover Rome.

The jet took off and as soon as it reached altitude it just as quickly descended to Rome. From the window I was surprised to see how close it was to the Tyrrhenian Sea. After disembarking I walked up to the first information center I could find to ask where Delta's ticket counter. They told me that it might be closed because they only have flights out in the early morning. After about an hour there I was directed to Alitalia. The first counter I went to was for domestic only (I was international), so I had to go to another terminal for the Alitalia ticket counter. Now it was just about 12:30 and I was burning daylight and getting perturbed! When I got to Alitalia I was told that they would help me get my hotel and meal voucher from Delta. The very kind and helpful agent kept calling for about another hour when finally they got someone. My story was told and the Delta agent said my vouchers would be there in 5 minutes...or about 1:30. After another hour wait the English speaking Delta agent came over and was made at me for making him walk all the way over to the Alitalia counter! I asked him how to get to the hotel (the Satellite Hotel), and he said go outside, down to the first level and look for a silver bus. Okay, now I had wasted all morning, at least I was going to my hotel. Once outside and down to street level I found a 1/2 mile long area for busses filled with either silver or white busses! Walking up and down the line I asked each "Satellite Hotel?" and the driver shook his head and point to the next bus. Finally I found the right area and the sign said "bus every 30 minutes". After an hour I called the hotel and they said one would be there by 3pm. I arrived at my hotel at 3:30 extremely tired from standing and waiting. I hadn't eaten since 7:30 am and was famished. So I went to the hotel restaurant and they made me a special lunch in between their open hours.