Good bye to Rome

This is my last day in Rome. I will be flying out on WestJet at 2:35 pm to Calgary and then connecting on to Edmonton. I had one last adventure this morning. I borrowed the rickety old woman's bike from the Air BnB owner and bicycled around Fiumicino for about an hour. I wanted to make it down to the sea for one last visit. Fiumicino is not a very bicycle or pedestrian friendly city. Although I didn't go on any major roads, the streets that I was on were narrow with no shoulders. I realized the safest tactic was going the wrong way down one way streets as there was more space and I could see the cars coming. Forgive me Ray for this bicycling transgression.I survived and made it back to my accommodation unscathed.

There was supposed to be a national transit strike today. It was very difficult to tell how this would effect the bus I would take to the airport so I paid the Air BnB owner 20 Euros to give me a ride that way I didn't have to fuss or worry about missing my plane.

I am now sitting at the airport chilling before my flight leaves I think that I have had a pretty good trip. In the moment having the vitreous detachment was a worry however I didn't have a retinal detachment which can be a sequelae of a vitreous detachments. Over the last two weeks the haziness has improved probably because the blood has reabsorbed and the floaters although still there are diminished.I have an appointment to see an optometrist on this coming Monday for a recheck so hopefully all will be well.I didn't get too lonely on the trip as I was traveling by myself. I read a number of books, stayed pretty active and kept this blog. I think I had more fun on the family European vacations as it is more fun to experience these adventures with others but that wasn't an option. I read something on this trip by Theroux who said that one is never alone if one keeps a Journal . I think that is very true. If not for the meeting, I wouldn't have come to Italy at the beginning of September. It was too hot that first week in Rome. In fact with Global warming I would probably avoid European holidays in June, July, August and early September. I just seem to wilt in the heat. I bought some compression bags for the trip which worked very well as did my TRTL neck rest. I brought too much clothing as I wanted to look get at the conference. All of my accommodations had laundry so it wasn't required. The conference that I attended was just okay too much stuff that won't have an impact for 10 years or more and by then I will be retired. That is probably what I will find more and more over the next several years as I attend these conferences. I really found the Rick Steves book helpful and was glad I had it with me. I would have missed out on a lot winging by myself and tripadvisor.

I hope you have enjoyed the blog and this will give you some inspiration for your own travels.Read more