We have arrived in Rome, Italy after an overnight flight from Houston and a short layover in Munich, Germany. We had some slight confusion upon our arrival at the Rome International Airport. Our flight attendant accidentally directed us straight to the airport exit instead of baggage claim. To make a long story short, after being sent to two different terminals and a departures lounge from the employees at the information desk, a young security guard found us and escorted us through a special "Employees Only" security checkpoint and helped us find our luggage, which thankfully was still going around the conveyor belt.
Once we had our baggage dilemma all situated, our tour director spotted us easily due to the backpacks and messenger bag EF Tours provides all their clientele. Fortuna Gallo is our lovely tour director for the duration of our trip. I was especially impressed when she contacted me a week before our departure date and laid out our trip itinerary and told me I could call her any time.
We officially exited the airport by 2:00 in the afternoon and made it to the bus where we met the rest of our tour group. We were met with a slight groan from the rest of the tour group because we were the last to arrive. Blame the airplane, not us. In total, our group size was 35: two school groups from West Virginia, a family from New York, and a mother/daughter/friend group from New Jersey (and of course, HOLA from Houston)
It was close to 2:30 in the afternoon before we arrived at our hotel and dropped off our luggage before heading into the center of Rome for a short afternoon near the Spanish Steps, transferring US currency to Euros (Not so bad exchange rate, 1 euro equals $1.49), and enjoying a lovely gelato on that particular hot afternoon. We could not wait for this trip to officially begin!
