Jim and I flew over on Turkish Air, our first time with this airline, departing at 3:00PM. It was amazing: business class, plane wasn’t full, and service beyond anything we’ve ever experienced. So much food and a chef on board – seriously? We had snacks about 30 minutes into the flight, then appetizers, dinner, dessert and lights out at about 5:30pm our time. Watched a few movies because neither one of us could sleep – not a good plan. At 11:30pm our time (Atlanta) – lights on – time for breakfast! Then we landed in Istanbul! The terminal was amazing as you will see from some of the photos! Largest one we’ve ever seen. A 3 hour layover gave us time to have coffee, eat and roam around.
We boarded the second aircraft and headed to Rome for a 3 hour flight. More food – thank you but I have no more room for food so I’ll pass! Managed a short nap!
Now for the fun part! We landed in Rome, processed through immigration and customs without a hitch, got to the car rental desk, handed them our papers, and they said – we need your international driver’s license? What? This is something new to us but we subsequently learned the rule has been around but enforcement has varied. Yes, the rental confirmation email said the international license is required but we did not catch this new requirement. Anyway, this time Europcar and Hertz for sure were enforcing the requirement. They said we could go back to the US to get the license and we replied “Uh No” so on to Plan B – which we did not have. After checking with another car rental – same thing. Jim and I looked at each other and said now what? We called our friend Nicola and told him of our dilemma. In the meantime, there was a traveler sitting next to me and he said “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation, how can I help?” He was a young man from Austria who had been working on his laptop. Turned out we were going to the same area of Tuscany and he offered to drive us if his rental was large enough. He didn’t have his car yet. However, he was also waiting for his girlfriend to arrive at 7pm then they would head out which would put us in Rocca di Castagnoli, Chianti, around midnight! We were already tired. Then he said he found a train that goes to Florence and it leaves Rome every 15 minutes. So we called Nicola and he said he’d pick us up in Florence. We would then have about 2 – 2 1/2 hour drive up to the relais.
We were glad he picked us up because the drive was an extremely winding road and it was very dark – almost zero lights other than two or three cars passing by, and it went on forever! Finally arrived at the resort at 9:30 and went to the restaurant to eat dinner. It was delicious and you will see courses below!
Got to the room to go to bed at 10:30 and crashed. I slept for 13 hours straight since we were up over 36 hours – not exactly fun. Jet lag is still with us but it’s getting better. All of this in just 2 days, oh boy!
Jet lag is still with us but it’s getting better. All of this in just 2 days oh boy! A domani.