Rome is Dark

Our flight from SFO took us through Zurich on a 2 hour layover and then onto Rome. Landing in Rome was mostly uneventful with the exception of around 5 minutes of some seriously choppy weather.

The wait for our luggage was much longer than we expected but as long as there were other people from the flight, I wasn't worried that our luggage was lost someplace in Guam.

We meandered our way through the airport to the train station. Mary went in search of an ATM for some euros while went off to find tickets and the train that would take us to Roma Termini. While walking down the platform, I was stopped by a guy and asked a question in Italian. My understanding of Italian is just a smidge above nonexistent. But I caught the word train and Roma Termini so I smiled, pointed to the train we were going to get on and said Roma Termini. He smiled, said grazie and headed to the train. Afew moments later and an Asian dude stopped me and asked something about his ticket. After miming through for a bit, I realized that he wanted to know where he could validate his ticket. So I pointed off to the beginning of the platform, drew the outline of the boxes and mimed putting the ticket in to get stamped. He said thank you in asian influenced English and off he went. I'm still wondering why people chose me to ask for help. Strange but satisfying to help.

The train ride to Roma Termini was pretty short, around 25 minutes. The terminal itself was huge! And when I say huge I mean enormous! We walked for at least10 minutes along train tracks and platforms before we made the front entrance. It's big.

Next we needed a taxi to be able to get to our apartment. The first taxi driver we talked with didn't have a clue where the address was but the next pulled out his gps and found it quickly. Cost will be 35 euros which Mary thinks is a ripoff. We decided to pay it just because we didn't want to deal with trying to find other transport.

Driving through Rome is entertaining. Seems that wherever your car is located, that's your lane and that's where you were going. The drivers move fast, cut across traffic and treat traffic rules and signs as suggestions.

Most of the houses on the street of our apartment don't have numbers shown, It's more of a hunt and guess game to find the right one. Luckily Mariola and Tom were watching out the window and saw our taxi driving in circles.

The apartment is a cozy 3 bedroom with a kitchen, eating area / living room. Perfect for a group our size and way better that a hotel.

So far, my impression of Rome is that it's dark. I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

Frisky Zurich

Our first stop is in Zurich just to transfer planes to get to Rome. This had to be the fastest customs ever though Mary thinks that it was just passport control. Regardless, we were through within minutes. And I got my passport stamped. Proof, proof I say that I was here!

We had to go through a security checkpoint again before heading to our gate. It is much simpler and much faster than the ones in the US. Very much all business, scan bags and everyone goes through a metal detector. For me, it was a bit more since the rivets in my pants tripped the metal detector. I was immediately led to a screening booth where a guy used a handheld wand to check me. Every time he went passed a rivet the wand would beep. Seeing that, he did a very thorough frisk of my waist band, groin and legs. He was not at all worried about offending, just strictly business. As soon as he was done, he waved me on through with a "have a nice day."

While SFO doesn't charge for wifi access, Zurich airport does. So posting this will have to wait until I can find free wifi access.

SFO and the TSA Theatre

We're flying out of SFO to Zurich and then onto Rome. A dear friend of ours (thanks Dana!) was kind enough to drop us off at the airport. That's pretty convenient since it means we don't have to leave our car at the airport and pay $20 per day.

Getting to the Swiss Air checkin counter was pretty easy and there was no one in the economy line in front of us. We thought it would be a breeze. Unfortunately, the person who was checking in the economy passengers left after finishing with the person in front of us. The other lines, for web checkin, business and first class all had customer service people and the folks were moving through there at a pretty reasonable clip. We waited. And waited. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, only about 10 minutes before we were called up and were able to checkin. That went slow but pretty smoothly. Though we only received our boarding pass for the flight to Zurich, only it wasn't a boarding pass. We'll have to check in again at the gate to get a seat assignment for the first flight and to get the boarding pass to Rome.

Next up was the security screening, also know as the TSA security theatre. They're now using the new x-ray full body scanners and I really don't want to go through them. When the woman security person directed me to go through, I told her I refuse. She looked at me a moment and then called on her radio for a male security person to come and pat me down. While waiting for him to arrive, I watched as she purposefully directed 2 people with children around the body scanner and through the standard metal detector, saying to them that they can't go through the scanner with a child. And it seemed to be a bit arbitrary who was directed into the scanner and who was let around and just through the metal detector. Mostly guys were directed into the scanner though there were some women. Lots of people were directed around.

Once the male security person arrived, he asked why I didn't want to be scanned. I told him that I didn't want to be exposed to the x-rays. He wrote something on a clipboard, hopefully this is an indication that the TSA is trying to listen to people. But who knows.

He collected my things and walked me over to an area on the side but in the open. He carefully explained what was going to happen, that he would touch me an various places to ensure that I didn't have any hidden items. He explained that are this part of my body he'd use the inside of his hands and on that area he'd use the outside. He explained that he would be reaching up the inside of my leg and touch personal areas. He asked if I wanted to go to a private room. I refused, if they were going to go through this much theatre, at least everyone else going through the checkin point should be able to enjoy the show.

The pat down itself was pretty quick but not very thorough. He had me turn and face my belongings which were in the grey plastic bins on the floor and walked behind me to begin. He patted my back down, checked the cuffs of my shirt sleeves, check my waistband by pulling it away from my body and running his hands around the inside. He felt down my left leg and then the other. On standing up again, he moved around front and again told me that he would be feeling my private areas. He raised his hands up my leg but didn't make it all the way up to my groin. If there had been something hidden, he wouldn't have found it. He then asked me to sit down and proceeded to wipe down the outside of his gloves with a white pad. The pad was fed into a machine and a moment later he said I can go, that I should enjoy my flight. I'm assuming that I passed the test for trace explosives. Yea.

The entire time he was courteous, and explained everything before he did it, asked if I had any questions. I don't think that the pat down was all that thorough but I do think that there are a lot of people who would be offended that a stranger put his hands on private parts of their body.

I really found it interesting that the full body scanners were optional and that opting out was as simple as saying no. It took me a few minutes extra to proceed through the security check but it wasn't too much of an inconvenience. While I was there, I was the only person I saw who opted out of the scanner. I think it'll be interesting to see what happens next Friday (11/29) when large numbers of people opt out in protest to this farce of a security check. I think that it's going to make for long delays and missed flights but hopefully the TSA will listen and that the general public doesn't agree with this, that they should perhaps implement a better security process. I know that I don't feel any safer with the theatre they're putting on.