Rome Blues
For the past 24 hours I have had to remind myself that things could be worse, I could be in New Orleans. Bottom line: The boys and I are marooned in Rome for several days, thanks to my dumb mistake, compounded by a bit of bad luck and Italy's utter haplessness when it comes to anything urgent.
We left Alex's passport in the hotel room in Siena. It was my fault, I moved them from one bag to another and didn't check to make sure I had them all. Somehow his dropped out. The hotel keeper found it after we left and chased us in his car toward Venice, but couldn't find us. When we got to our hotel, there was a note. The Siena hotel keeper agreed to overnight the passport ahead of us to Rome, where the boys and I were to stay one night before flying out. The UPS driver assured him the package would arrive at the hotel by noon on Friday. Absolutely guaranteed. We were scheduled to fly out Saturday morning at 11:30.
So we get to the hotel Friday evening expecting the passport to be there and it's not. Freakout time. The phone numbers I have for UPS are getting me nowhere. I'm emailing and the hotel keepers are trying to help me but they're clearly out of their element.
One is trying to reassure me that it might come Saturday morning. The other one says, 'Honestly, if it didn't came today it's not coming until Monday. UPS is not the same here as it is in the United States. I buy things from eBay all the time and is rare they deliver on Saturday.' He explained that UPS hires local agencies to drop the packages off to their final destination. There are no brown trucks with guys in shorts tooling around Rome. Private agencies, the equivalent of a Mail Boxes Etc. with delivery service, carve up the town into neighborhood territories.
So I try again the next morning, trying desperately to get the package and still make the flight. A third hotel keeper finally gets me to a person at UPS, who is of little help other than confirming the other guy's hunch. Apparently there was a scanning error and the package got sent to an agency on the other side of Rome. Everything is closed on Saturday and Sunday, there is no place to go and pick up the package yourself like there is in the U.S. It will come on Monday, but they won't say what time. No extra effort to try to find the package, no extra effort to undo the mistake. It's just not something they do.
The airline has one flight a day. After Monday, the next available flight is for Thursday. So that's when we'll be back. The kids are mightily disappointed and ready to come home. School's already started. I'm ready too. At work, I know others will have to pick up the slack. Sorry guys.
Funny, when we were in Rome a week ago, it seemed like too little time. Being stranded sure changes your outlook on things (though we'll try to make the best of it).
Ciao for now.
We left Alex's passport in the hotel room in Siena. It was my fault, I moved them from one bag to another and didn't check to make sure I had them all. Somehow his dropped out. The hotel keeper found it after we left and chased us in his car toward Venice, but couldn't find us. When we got to our hotel, there was a note. The Siena hotel keeper agreed to overnight the passport ahead of us to Rome, where the boys and I were to stay one night before flying out. The UPS driver assured him the package would arrive at the hotel by noon on Friday. Absolutely guaranteed. We were scheduled to fly out Saturday morning at 11:30.
So we get to the hotel Friday evening expecting the passport to be there and it's not. Freakout time. The phone numbers I have for UPS are getting me nowhere. I'm emailing and the hotel keepers are trying to help me but they're clearly out of their element.
One is trying to reassure me that it might come Saturday morning. The other one says, 'Honestly, if it didn't came today it's not coming until Monday. UPS is not the same here as it is in the United States. I buy things from eBay all the time and is rare they deliver on Saturday.' He explained that UPS hires local agencies to drop the packages off to their final destination. There are no brown trucks with guys in shorts tooling around Rome. Private agencies, the equivalent of a Mail Boxes Etc. with delivery service, carve up the town into neighborhood territories.
So I try again the next morning, trying desperately to get the package and still make the flight. A third hotel keeper finally gets me to a person at UPS, who is of little help other than confirming the other guy's hunch. Apparently there was a scanning error and the package got sent to an agency on the other side of Rome. Everything is closed on Saturday and Sunday, there is no place to go and pick up the package yourself like there is in the U.S. It will come on Monday, but they won't say what time. No extra effort to try to find the package, no extra effort to undo the mistake. It's just not something they do.
The airline has one flight a day. After Monday, the next available flight is for Thursday. So that's when we'll be back. The kids are mightily disappointed and ready to come home. School's already started. I'm ready too. At work, I know others will have to pick up the slack. Sorry guys.
Funny, when we were in Rome a week ago, it seemed like too little time. Being stranded sure changes your outlook on things (though we'll try to make the best of it).
Ciao for now.
Comments
I am so sorry about your delay but take care and be careful. Tell the kids to stay close, we don't want to loose them. Can't wait to see you.
Love
Jannie