Italy Day 9 -- The Return

Today for breakfast we went down to the dining room at the hotel in Taormina (Giardini-Naxos) and ate their rolls with our cheese, ham and cracked olives that we bought last evening. It was very good. The coffee was good, too. That was one surprise in Italy--all the coffee I had was very good. I had thought it would be strong and undrinkable, but it was not. It was very flavorful and easy to drink.

After breakfast we loaded our bags in the car and began our drive back to Catania (the same drive we made yesterday, but not all the way to Seracusa). We had one blooper despite all our planning. Dennis downloaded the address of the car rental place from the internet. We made several passes, but couldn't find it. We came to the conclusion the address on the internet was for their offices, not the actually rental return place. So we drove on to the airport and found the car rental/return lot. That done, we walked with our bags to the airport and checked in for our flights to Rome and the connecting flight to New York. There were long lines and waits, but no mishaps. 

At the airport in Catania, I noticed people walking small dogs and holding dog carriers. I guess they allow dogs on the flights, but I didn't see or hear any on our flight. I took a few pictures of the dogs because they were so cute.

We made our connection in Rome somehow and settled in for the long flight to New York. I watched 3 movies and then rested for an hour or so until we landed. We finally got to our room around 9 p.m. New York time. Not bad considering we left the hotel 22-1/2 hours earlier. And it was raining.

Of course, we have another 8 hours of flying time today to get us in San Diego, which is a 60 minute drive from our house. Oh, yeah, traveling is a blast.