ROME

Finally, just when I was ready to give up - i have managed to access the blog site and post a new blog.  Its been a busy day in Rome so this will have to be short. 

we had a good flight - if spending over 20 hours in flight can possibly ever be good.  i certainly asked myself  during the flight why I was flying to the other side of the world. Hopefully tho - the next couple of weeks will show it to be all worth while.
Rome started with great promise as we disembarked from the plane and immediately boarded an electric bus to take us to the main terminal.  I commented to Tony that obviously my readings were incorrect as I had read that Rome was one of the most inefficient airports in the world!! He thought I should perhaps I should not make judgement too soon.... and before long we found ourselves standing in a great throng of people with noone knowing what was happening and no signs to advise whhich direction to go.  After probably about 15-20 minutes the crowd started to move and when we rounded the corner - could see that we were lining up to go through immigration.  (Note that "lining up" is not really discriptive of the true situation which which was really more haphazard mishmash of people with no resemblance of "lines or queues.)

However, after that we collected our luggage without mishap and identified our transfer man - holding up the sign "Margaret Buchan'.  We were advised that there was a "general strike" that day so we had to wait for another transfer vehicle and the traffic was to be particularly heavy.