Rethinking and Rebooking

It all started at 6 am, when I realized I hadn’t slept more than a few hours. I went downstairs to see if the hotel gods had found a way for us to extend our stay here in Genova. YES!!! Cancellation of the Bergamo hotel was quick and they were very kind (I am so glad I booked all of these hotels directly and not with booking). Back up in the room, I couldn’t sleep much and at breakfast had a good long chat with myself. It makes no sense to stay here hoping that Joe will recover enough to enjoy any of this trip. As I write, he has now spent three full days in bed without leaving the room. SO, time to cancel the trip to Verona and rebook the flight.

That took several hours, but fortunately Amerian has an office in Milan, and even more fortunately, it was taking calls on Christmas Eve. The first news was pretty bad — rebooking for the next few days would cost, I am not kidding, about €9,300 more than our original ticket - and that was per person! The person on the phone was very kind, and insisted she’d find something less awful. 90 minutes later, she had rebooked us on the 29th Milan-JFK-Chicago-Champaign, for a far more reasonable supplement. No London connection is an added bonus.

That means staying here till the 28th, going to the Sheraton at the Milan airport, and then getting a 10 am flight to JFK on the 29th. I think this is definitely the best plan, though I would have preferred going home earlier. But hey, not for 18,000 euro!!!!

In between all the rebooking and cancellations, I took a few quick trips with one major purpose - find a quiet church with real (not electric) candles, both for me and Sra. Pila. First I went to Santo Stefano, another Romanesque church and one I hadn’t seen, but a high Russian Orthodox mass was just beginning. By the time I got to the centro histórico, all the churches had closed for the midday break. I did get to climb the cathedral bell tower, though! Back at the hotel, I got every last detail ironed out, and by 5 pm was on my way to Santo Donato. Nothing left to rebook, nothing left to cancel. Just time to breathe. It was quiet, open, and had real candles. I came back feeling very good — for me, Romanesque churches have strong soothing powers. Very humble and simple places.

So for the next three days, I guess there will be a few more jaunts through Old Genova while Joe hopefully gets stronger. He is in good spirits and keeps insisting he feels fine, just tired.

I can’t say it feels much like Christmas, but sending lots of merry wishes to all my buddies.Read more