We woke up bright and early at 2am (May 30) and headed to Las Vegas. The reason we headed to Vegas was because the St. George airport is now closed, it actually closed yesterday May 29th. They have to redo the entire runway due to soil conditions. It will be re-opening in September so we will be probably spending a lot of time in Vegas.
The two hour drive didn't seem so long, but it was 3am so we were kinda tired. As we approached Vegas we came across a big crash in the other lane. There were a ton of emergency vehicles and I saw a car all squished. Hunter and I thought for sure there was a fatality, but later we found out that everyone was alive, so that was very good. The desert is a strange place at night. Further up from the crash as we were driving, we almost hit a person who was standing in the middle of the interstate. It was so bizarre.
Anyways we got to Vegas super early for our 8am flight. At 5 am we got into one of the priority pass lounges in the airport and had some snacks and drinks and waited for our flight to Portland. I might have had a small nap in the lounge too.
We made our flight in a spacious exit row. The flight attendants were awesome to us and offered us anything we wanted. I really love when FAs are super nice to fellow employees in the industry. Two hours later we arrived in Portland and went to Capers Cafe Le Bar, a restaurant on priority pass. I had a lox bagel and Hunter had a ham and Swiss sandwich as well as chili. The place is reasonably priced and we even got dessert! Well, we did spend over $50 but it was free with priority pass. We did leave a $5 tip so I guess lunch only cost us $5!
After lunch, we went to the Alaska lounge for an hour. We looked at hotels and found that the prices have increased insanely for Hamburg, like $80 yesterday to $250+ today. We began to rethink our plan. Hunter looked at Rome, and sure enough, there were reasonably priced hotels. We asked some people who worked for KLM how the flight to Rome from Amsterdam looked and there was space! So our new plan was Rome, which actually was fine because we had a whole list of things to do from planning for it at the start of May.
We headed to the gate for our flight to Amsterdam and checked in with the gate agent. Funnily enough, one of the people Hunter and I are friends with on Instagram, @sixmiles.up, was on the flight with his parents. Hunter and I were looking good at getting Delta One, but Mike and his parents were looking tight because a last minute pilot showed up and requested a Delta One seat. Hunter and I got 9C and 9G, beside each other and Mike and his parents got the seats in front of us and we're very lucky because someone in Delta one got sick and deplaned, so all of them were able to be in the Delta One cabin.
Our flight quickly took off and service began. Hunter and I also started a movie called Second Act which was very funny. For dinner, I had the beef, which was amazing, and Hunter had the pasta, which was also delicious. The starter was also delicious with shrimp, soup, and salad.
Hunter forgot to take a picture of his pasta
After dinner, we went to sleep. I woke up before Hunter, who slept all the way till breakfast service. I started another movie called Ben's Back, which was ok. For breakfast we had frittatas. They were really yummy.
Hunter and I booked tickets for a tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peters Basilica and then I might have taken another nap, but not without having some snacks first which included a great pasta salad.
We headed to our gate for the flight to Rome an hour early and gave our standby cards to the gate agents. Unfortunately, when we were cleared they didn't have seats beside each other so I was in 4 F and Hunter was in 7 C. While it appeared I was in business class, I was in more of what we would call premium economy or comfort plus. The Europeans are weird. Their business class is just regular premium economy seats but they leave the middle seat empty and then there is a divider that moves and can be adjusted depending on the number of people who booked business. All I had was extra leg room, which I should have gave to Hunter, but I was happy to have a window seat.
I slept most of the flight while Hunter read the lonely planet guide on Rome. When we landed we got fast train tickets and headed to the main station Termini. Once we got there, we had to get cash from an ATM to buy metro tickets. When we went to the machine, these people came and gave us their one trip tickets as they had extras so we didn't need to buy our 3 day passes yet. It was weird but nice of them.
We finally arrived at our AirBnB at 7pm and it was a lovely little place. The lady who met with us showed us a map with all the highlights which was nice. After we put our things down, I went to shower, but the drain was blocked. We messaged the host and she said not to use it and would get the owner to come in and fix it. We then decided to leave and have something to eat. We found a little pizza place right around the corner where we got two pieces and a coke for €8.
After eating we went to see St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican. It was very nice and amazing to see all the old architecture.
It wasn't long after showering that we were asleep.
Date: May 30-31, 2019
I was in Rome 12 years ago and really loved it. Remember to visit the House of the Vestal Virgins! It is the one thing I remember the most about the trip.
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