Toscana!

Ciao!

Well, we recently returned from a brief trip to Italy, and I grew to truly appreciated Swedish efficiency during our time there. The trip was fantastic so don't get me wrong, but some events that occurred at the airport made me wonder about Italy and Italians :) One prime example, upon arriving at the airport in Florence we discover that our plane is half an hour late, no big deal...but then time ticks closer and closer to the time of departure and no one has come to the gate. Approximately five minutes after the time we should have been departing, a P.A. announcement announces that the plane has been diverted to Bologna because of bad weather (there had been a thunderstorm). And that's all it said. There is still no one at the gate, and no other information has been provided. So we all sit there and wait to see what will happen. Approximately 20 minutes later a second announcement repeats the information from the first and then announces that they will give us more information in 15 minutes. This is still all happening over the P.A. system with no actual physical presence at the gate. The announcement never comes, but we notice that we now have a new time of departure of 2 hours late. Phew! We're going to get to leave today. Fast forward to the time of boarding. The Florence airport is very small and you have to take a bus to the plane and then walk up the steps, so we all board the bus, complete with about 25 children under the age of 3, and wait, and wait, and finally a bus driver comes and drives us to the plane, only there are no stairs going up to the doors of the plane and the doors are shut. So the driver sits there for a minute and as we wait the plane takes off!!! Apparently that wasn't our plane. Our plane is a bit further away at another waiting area. At this point, we just had to laugh at the chain of events that has transpired. But it ended well, we made it back only 3 hours late, and still made it in time for our dinner plans with friends!

If you want to check out our photos you can take a look at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127147&l=3b9ee&id=842465120
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127148&l=b9217&id=842465120
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127150&l=e74d8&id=842465120
(yes, there are three albums, I know, I know)

Ahhh, long live Swedish efficiency!
Hej då
E.