September 21 Flying to Rome

    Our neighbour, Bill, graciously woke up early to drive us, on a wet morning, to the airport by 4:30 a.m.  There was minimal traffic on the streets that early and we were at the airport less than 15 minutes from leaving home.

 The last time we flew was in May when we boarded a flight to Minneapolis, so we were not on the domestic departures side of the terminal. On the domestic departures side today, we noticed that the Tim Hortons café is now located at the southwest end of the domestic departure area in a larger space than its old location.  Face masks are required within the terminal and on the plane and compliance was very good. An announcement was made in the boarding lounge that there was a 15 minute limit to be unmasked while eating or drinking, which was also in effect on the plane.

  Our two hour plus flight going west to Calgary followed the sun as it rose over the prairies, showing a muted hazy orange glow on the horizon. The Rocky Mountains were barely visible in the distance as we landed. Once in the terminal, we walked to the different wings of the airport, parallel to the moving walkway and the dedicated corridor for the people shuttle – YYC Link. We did not need to dodge golf carts transporting passengers between gates here. We found the International departures wing as we explored the terminal. The five kilometer (6,500 steps) wander took almost an hour. It was a sunny day outside. We passed several Tim Hortons and Starbucks kiosks and stopped at one for a coffee break to enjoy a Smile cookie with our coffee. We turned on our laptops to read today’s digital newspaper. There was an email from the company that will be sending a driver to meet our flight and to drive us to our hotel at the port of Civitavecchia. The email was suggesting a pickup an hour earlier than we had estimated and they will be monitoring the flight’s arrival. So far, the plane is scheduled to depart on time.

 The layover was more than ten hours until the 9.5 hour flight to Rome (FCO) on a large Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane. When we departed Calgary flying east the sun was setting. The route is north over Greenland. Only about five hours of the flight will be in darkness.  Our seats were in row 19 with aisle access to occasionally stretch our legs for a short walk.



Total steps 22,190 = about 17.5 km



YYC Link shuttle






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