I just got back from a wonderful three-week trip to Italy. This was a re-do of a trip that was supposed to take place in April of 2020. My husband and I traveled with another couple, dear friends for over 40 years. Here is my trip report. It is long, so I will break it into segments.
COVID TESTS: To travel to Italy, we had to have negative covid tests, with the sample drawn no sooner than 72 hours prior to our arrival in Italy. At my doctor for something routine two days before the flight, I was required to have a rapid PCR covid test. They gave me a print out of my negative result, and this saved my having to figure out where to test. My husband found a place to get a free PCR test with results guaranteed to be emailed within 24 hours but he had to do it one day before the flight, as the facility was closed the prior day. With the 24 hour result time, he’d have his results at least 7 hours before flight time. When we arrived at O’Hare, he still hadn’t gotten the email. He called and learned that he’d tested negative but the State of WI was slow that day with the email verifications. We didn’t want to take the chance that the email would arrive on time for our flight, so he went down to the shuttle bus center, where rapid tests were being done for $120. We checked into the flight and were asked to show our passports and vaccination cards. We were asked if we had done covid tests and gotten negative results and said “yes,” then started to hand over the forms, but the agent waived us off, indicating he didn’t need to see them. What?? My husband’s original test results were finally emailed to him 56 hours after he was tested!
FLIGHTS TO ITALY: Our airline was Delta and the itinerary was ORD-AMS-FCO. We’d booked this trip for October 20 but about 2 months in advance, Delta moved us to a flight at the same departure time on October 19, with no email to notify us. I just happened to spot it during a routine check of my flight itinerary to see if any of the times had been tweaked. I clicked on the “accept change” button and booked an extra night in our first hotel, in Rome. The Oct. 20 flight apparently had been cancelled. It’s hard to believe the Oct. 19 flight wasn’t cancelled as well, given the smattering of people on board. In our main cabin section, there were only about 20 passengers. The section behind ours had even fewer. The flight attendants encouraged everyone to move around and claim a row to himself/herself. This was a completely peaceful flight as the lights were dimmed and everyone was stretched out sleeping in a three-row or four- row sections with arm rests lifted. At AMS we had about a half hour in line to go through passport control. The AMS to FCO flight was full. All flights were on time and we arrived in Rome at 11 a.m. on Oct. 20.
ROME HOTEL: We checked into our hotel, The Regency, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel. This was a last minute booking. Our original Rome hotel had been Villa Morgagni, but when we tried to confirm our reservation a week in advance of the trip, and got no reply to our emails and no answer when calling, we did some investigation and learned that the hotel had been closed since January. This despite the fact that third party booking sites were still taking reservations for it! Our substitute hotel was brand new and really chic and lovely, a boutique hotel in a great location, about an 8 minute walk to the Borghese Gallery and Museum.