Roman Holiday Extended

Here I am still in Rome, in the midst of yet another travel adventure which will make a good story once it's all over with and I'm safely where I need to be. Really it will. In the meantime, unfortunately, I'm stuck in Rome for another night after travelling the two hours via metro and bus from the city to my airport only to discover that it's been closed down until tomorrow at midnight to let all the dignitaries fly in, and that all flights had been transferred to different airports. But of course departed at the regularly scheduled times. Which meant there was no way I would make the 130-mile journey to the correct airport in time. And, as the next flight back to London from there was booked up, my only option was to transfer to a flight heading back tomorrow. So I trekked back to Rome, caused quite a shock to Kate by reappearring outside her classroom just as she expected my plane to be taking off, and am staying with her for another night and really hoping all goes smoothly tomorrow. I'm thanking the cautionary voice that told me to leave a day's travel cushion between my return from Italy and my departure to Ireland, so hopefully as things look at the moment I'll still be able to make that flight with no problems. Knock on wood for me, though, will you?

On a more upbeat note, on the way to the airport Kate and I were passed by a lengthy cavalcade (is that the word I want?) of darkly tinted cars with the American flag and insignias speeding, lights flashing and sirens blaring, from the direction of the U.S. Embassy to St. Peter's, and Kate's pretty sure one of the shadowy figures she glimpsed through the windows was George Bush. I should have stopped him to see if I could hitch a ride to England on Air Force 1 while he's not using it.