4/8 Rome to Paris

Saturday 4^th Back on land – flight to Paris

We woke easily and had our last crack at the buffet. We took a lift down to the first floor and walked straight out the gangway!! Amazingly simple. No queue at all. The shuttle bus dropped us outside the port and we strolled down to the station, pausing for a cappuccino (1.50E) at the waterfront café where we had previously used wifi.

Train tickets through to Terminal 3 at Rome Airport cost 11E each and took about an hour. The train pulled up metres from the front door of the departure terminal. We had planned to allow for the boat being late and/or other delays and the blistering speed of our arrival left us with 6 hours to wait for the plane. It was comfortable enough and the queues were nowhere remotely as bad as Charles de Gaulle had been. The airport is bright new and shining – laid out much the same as Milan (or was it KL?) where you take a driver-less train from the terminal to the departure nodes. We are currently sitting at node G and it has the full set of Gucci Prada Bvlgari etc.

Air Kuwait was pleasant enough for a 2 hour flight. The sky was clear and we tracked along the Italian coast, hoping to see Giglia from the air. A few patches of minor turbulence but they went under or around them. In no time we were back in Paris, which has become quite  stamping ground for us.

It is strange to feel so at home on the Paris metro, and much easier with the wheelie luggage and no 5^th bag. We had about 4 legs with a few staircases in between but it was all easy enough. We found our hotel and checked in. It had been a while since we last got online - I know you have all been on tenterhooks so quick refresher – the Rat Pack were Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Peter Lawford was the “quiet” one and David Niven hung out with them in the later years.