Grumble, grumble

I suppose one can't expect much movement on airfares when fully half the final fare is taxes. Where are we and how did we get in this handbasket? There's something distinctly wrong about taxes when they constitute more than a third of the final cost of something, In My Not So Humble Opinion.

So apparently we will have to break down and pay about $200 more than we wanted to. Sigh. On the other hand, having it settled will be good.

The flight we are looking at leaves Atlanta in late afternoon, leaving plenty of time for crazed racing around in the morning and still time to get to the airport and the possibility of sleeping on the flight. Returning, the flights all seemed to require arrival at the Rome airport at a hideously early hour - the kind that requires a cab ride because you can't take the train in a coma. Then we spotted one that leaves at 1 p.m. and flies to Paris with a 1 hour plane change time and gets back to Atlanta at 8:20 p.m., which gets me home by midnight at the latest, one hopes. And the Sunday to unpack, sleep a lot and gin myself up to return to work.

Still need to - pronto - attend to the international driver's license thing. And no response from my first cousin who lives in Florence. I might be the only relative ever who was coming to Italy and not expecting to stay with her.

So got to move the money and book the airfare this week.

Airfares haven't budged, not one bit

I was really hoping to keep the airfare down to $800 or so, but it's starting to look as though that isn't happening. I've been through eight zillion travel sites and there's not much variation. The hard part is that it appears that taxes amount to almost as much as the actual airfare, which seems crazy.

And another irony is that between the two best flights, one has two US legs, where I would be charged $25-35 per leg for a checked bag (and no one can do 10 days overseas in a carry-on) while a non-stop out of Atlanta which is $70 more starts looking better and better because you get one free checked bag on international flights.

Bah.

Speaking of bags, I have a short trip to make soon and I hauled out my bag and realized that my "big" suitcase is a 21-incher - actually legal as a carry-on, even though it's really far too large for that in my reality. So I went online and gulped at the cost of a garment bag or larger suitcase in the same line. And then started looking for for something similar and cheaper, matched set be damned. But then, on my way to get the watch battery replaced (of course, with all sorts of other things going on, my watch battery had to expire - Hello, Murphy!) I stopped at TJMaxx to look at their luggage and darned if I didn't find "my" suitcase in the size I wanted for about $20 less than eBay (that's a first). I'd LOVE to find the matching garment bag, but I'm not holding my breath - this is as much luck as I'm likely to get.

I've worked my way through about half of the Pimsleur lessons. I listen and repeat in the car driving back and forth to work. It takes 2-3 days to start getting through one module, but that's OK. I can follow the Italian parts of the lesson and that's the part I worry about, the hearing and understanding.

I hope to spend some of my time off over the holiday going over my books and trying to make myself out some sort of tentative schedule of museums - I don't want to be over-scheduled, but I also don't want to waste time and miss things by not having a plan.

Still haven't taken care of the International Driver's License stuff. Life has intervened.

Capisci l'Italiano?

One ongoing project is to try to tune my ear to l'italiano. I know I won't be able to listen nearly fast enough, but I'm hoping by the time I get there to be able to get a general drift. I'm kind of OK reading printed Italian from those HS Latin classes, but machine-gun fast italiano? Going to be a stretch.
So I have various Italian language CDs and tapes and I listen to them as I cruise up and down GA 400 on my way to and from work. I wish I could afford the Rosetta Stone set, but ye gods and little fishes, it's $300+ USED.
Then sometimes, before I got to sleep, I'll turn the wee Dell netbook on and tune in to one of the Italian radio stations on the Internet. http://www.listenlive.eu/italy.html has a nice list of Italian stations of various sorts from news and talk through opera, techno, etc.

A ticket, please

Now I have to find a good fare to Rome. Sadly, the lowest I've been able to find so far is the better part of $1K. About half of that is taxes and fees, which is just patently ridiculous. I'd really like to see what the taxes are exactly, who gets them and why!

However, I wasn't counting on a really cheap airfare, although I will delighted if I can come in around $800.

The Internet and Google are my friend in this search it appear.

More as things develop. This week I need to get the paperwork for the International Driver's License together.

Passport, please

The passport arrived in less time than the elapsed time from first trying to make an appointment to walking into the PO. Of course, not without some problems, but that's all been taken care of. Now, I start searching for airfare. $900 seems be be about the lowest price so far, which seems bad, but almost half of that is taxes and fees!

At last, a room that leaves room in the budget

While I was writing letters of inquiry, I ran across one more rental website, one that allowed you to make inquiries directly to the owners, so I selected about five that were small and in the area I wanted and somewhere within shouting distance of my price range. Three of them came back with preposterous quotes – one was 20% more than the quoted daily rate even after a discount, but one? Yes, one of them was pretty much exactly what I wanted although maybe a bit smaller than I’d hoped for, but with a correspondingly small 10 day rate.
At last, I had located an affordable shelter and I can begin to put the rest of the trip together. The apartment, a very tiny studio, is in a 16th century building, recently renovated with excellent reviews by prior renters. It’s in the recently rediscovered Monti area of Rome, between the Termini station and the Colosseum in an area that used to be a slum and red light district in the 18th and 19th centuries. I have already sent a deposit, balance due at check in and am entirely completely delighted. And spent a couple of hours on Google maps looking at the street – narrow and authentically shabby – and nearby businesses. There’s even an Internet café a few doors down and a laundry across the street and down a bit.

Bags and Baggage

Apparently in recognition of the fact that one really can’t travel internationally on the contents of a carry on (even though some of the “carry on” luggage I’ve seen looked like wheeled steamer trunks) most of the airlines don’t charge for the first checked bag internationally, although I believe there is a 45 lb weight limit.
I have – since the luggage meltdown in NY – purchased a small rolling suitcase made by Lucas which behaved admirably on its first outing on a business trip to Philadelphia. It came with a matching sort of purse and I was fortunate enough to find a small wheeled carryon from the same line on sale on eBay. I think those three items should be sufficient.
I’m trying to construct a packing list that will allow me to dress for comfort, warmth and reasonable neatness so that I do not cut the brutta figura that most Americans seem to do overseas in badly fitted khakis, tight jeans or shorts with t-shirts and fanny packs. One lesson that was brought home to me in England in 1995 was that dressing unlike the tourist hordes meant getting treated, in general, more like a traveler than a tourist. Now I am a tourist, I see no shame in the phrase, but all of my early indoctrination as a military dependent not to offend one’s host country makes me want to be taken as a respectful traveler. What didn’t matter in my teens and 20s matters a bit more now that I’m in my creaky mid-50s.
The clever little rolling carryon arrived today and includes a document case, a pair of slippers for the filthy floors at the TSA checkin, and a hanger bag for toiletries. Very nice and it looks as though I can strap it on top of the larger Lucas rollie once I collect it at the end of the flight.
Now to start constructing a packing list and see if it all fits. I'm thinking wool trousers (average high in February is 55F) light sweaters and turtlenecks for layering, one good plain sweater for outwear and my good coat (which will be a wear on, not a packable), plus one calf length skirt and one dress. I figure the bottoms are good for 3 wearings assuming I don't spill anything on myself - it's tops that will be the issue - pack enough, hopefully to only need two wearings? That would mean 5 shirts or sweaters. Plus underwear and shoes. Probably 2 pair of shoes above and beyond the pair I wear on the plane - two pair of walking shoes and one pair of nice flats. Heels, me and the cobblestones of Rome? Not something I'm willing to chance.
As for the rest, I'll buy things like soap and toothpaste and shampoo there, just bring the minimum of cosmetics and then my various allergy and fibromyalgia medications.
Hopefully that will leave room and poundage for the 3 guidebooks I plan to bring, one Italian-English dictionary, the wee Dell netbook, power supply and a converter. Only one of the guidebooks is bigger than a very slim paperback, the other two are quite small and one has a pocket with an excellent map. My little Nikon Coolpix, its sync cord and some extra memory cards. I particularly want to bring the computer because it will allow me to download the camera and to stay in touch with family via email, as well as ease of making museum or train reservations online vs on the phone. I also plan to download a few e-books from the public library onto it, so that I'll have my nightly reading material without lugging books or buying expensive English language books there.