We were up bright and early today so we could leave at 7:30 for the airport.  The drive entailed braving the roads of Palermo once more, the airport being on the other side of the city.  Indeed, the drive was pleasant until we reached the outskirts of Palermo, where it became bumper to bumper for early a half-hour.  Happily we had managed to avoid this route for most of our outings.  The flight to Rome was uneventful and we arrived in the middle of a cool and rainy afternoon.  We took a train into Rome Centro and after dragging our luggage to the nearby hotel in the rain, we ate a very late lunch in the “food court” area of the train station, and retreated to the hotel to start organizing ourselves for the next day’s departure.

The flight from Sicily to Rome was on one of those cheap airlines and we had been limited to one carry-on and one checked bag, so we had much rearranging to do for tomorrow’s flight with the customary two carry-ons.  Internet in the hotel was not free, but we paid for an hour’s time so Phyllis could call her mother and Craig could find a good restaurant for dinner later.  He was successful, we had a good meal at Mama Angela’s, but found to our amusement and some discomfort that virtually everyone in the place was speaking English, American English in fact.  We both decided we prefer to be surrounded by locals than fellow tourists.  However, the food was excellent and we were finally able to get our long sought tiramisu (it was a specialty of the house).