Italy/Greece Day 1 May 11th – A Curve Ball on MOTHER’S DAY

Wow! A big curve ball on our very first day! On this trip,  Elizabeth and I will join 20 others to follow the footsteps of the apostle Paul. We start in Athens, cruise to Turkey and the Greek Isles, and finish in Rome in time for Pope Leo’s first public reception.  

But before meeting the others in Athens on Wednesday, May 14th, Elizabeth and I planned to fly first to Rome, then take a train south to Naples, and then head down to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. On the way to Sorrento, we were to visit Pompeii, which sits in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, which erupted in 79 AD, completely burying the city of Pompeii and all of its inhabitants in 13 to 20 feet of volcanic ash.  It is a UNESCO world heritage site partly because it is “the only archaeological site in the world that provides a complete picture of an ancient Roman city.”

Well, that was our plan.

During my lifetime I have flown on over 1,000 flights and have never had to make a medical emergency landing – until today! Three hours into the flight I was awakened by an announcement that we were making an emergency landing. So, where do you land when you are over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? In this case it happened to be south in the Azores, which is where we landed at 4 a.m. local time.  

The Azores are a very small group of volcanic islands 1.5 hours flight time off the coast of Portugal/Morocco, but owned by Portugal.  Because the United States has a large military presence there, it had a runway large enough for us to land.

I have no idea how serious the situation was or if the passenger survived. Afterwards, we sat for 2 hours on the tarmac, with no idea when we might arrive in Rome. But everyone around us sitting in Coach had a great attitude. Maybe it was because most of the passengers were American and they were still giddy about flying to Rome just after the selection of the first American Pope. In any event, everyone seemed to take this setback in stride. 

The pilot must have put on the after-burners because we landed only 31/2 hours later than our original time. But by the time we got new train tickets (from airport to central Rome and Rome to Naples),we realized that we would miss our private Pompeii tour. So, our driver would take us straight to our hotel in Sorrento. 

But then a funny thing happened. As we were in Rome waiting for our train to Naples, we began a conversation with another couple, who were from Vermont. They were taking a later train to Naples and staying there. They asked if we were visiting Pompeii and we told them our story. They then told us they had a great guide lined up for Tuesday and asked if we wanted to join them! Because we had kept Tuesday as a free day, we had no plans. So, we traded contact information. 

So, we got thrown a big curve ball today. But instead flinching and striking out, we stayed in the batter’s box and took a swing. And who knows, we may get to see Pompeii after all and it may be an even better experience than if we had gone today. 
Tonight we will walk around Sorrento and grab a bite to eat and enjoy our amazing hotel!

I was thankful to finally arrive at the Grand Hotel La Favorita in Sorrento, Italy after almost 24 hours of planes, trains and automobiles!