Arrival in Turin

So after leaving Heathrow, I was headed to Rome on Alitalia airlines... not quite as nice as my British Airways flight out.

The flight was an hour plus late in departing which meant I arrived in Rome for my connecting flight to Turin late. As I get off the plane, a lady says "Mark Harrington", which I reply "Yes" and then she hands me a ticket and says you need to hurry to your flight.

So I rush my way through customs, 3rd time thus far, and down through the airport. I wasn't thinking it would be that far, so I didn't bother to put my shoes back on yet from the customs run through. So there I am, running through the airport in Rome carrying my coat, a laptop, and my shoes. After about 8 minutes of this running, and realizing that I still was not even close to my gate, I stopped and put my shoes on, at which point several other people ran past me, which got me scurrying again.

I finally arrive to my gate, after several incorrect gate stops, and I am told to wait... they are waiting for the bus to arrive to take us out to the tarmack for the plane. So there I stand... extremely sweaty... and confused as to why I am now waiting for a bus.

The flight to Turin was uneventful, as you would hope, and I arrive in Turin around 11:45 Turin time. I went to baggage claim and I waited, and waited, and waited.... alas, no bag for me. So I reported my missing bag, and caught a cab ride to the hotel.

My cabbie didn't speak a lick of English, and when I tried to make conversation about it being Bob Dylan on the radio, he misunderstood me and changed the channel. Then I tried to give him a tip at the end of the ride, but I had no cash so I wanted to add it to the credit card, and he started pulling out money from his wallet. I decided the concierge could straighten things out, and surely he did.

I got my room key and hopped in the elevator... extremely small elevator, and headed to my room. A very small room... feels like a single dorm room at college... but that is Europe. Once in my room I proceed to set things down, only to have all the lights go off on me. So I went and ran my key card by the door again and the lights came back on... well after three tries of lights going off on me, I finally realized that by the door there is a thing to put your key card in that keeps the lights on... definitely not in Kansas anymore.

I will try and include pictures tomorrow... but as it stands now I have to get up in 6 hours and have been in route for the past 24 hours.

Ciao!