We had a nice walk back from the pub last night, fantasizing about the nice leisurely morning to come and being able to awake . . .  whenever. Our flight o Milan wasn’t until 1:00pm. WRONG . . . in a final check of our tickets it read 7:00am!!!! This meant a 4:30am awakening and a mad dash to the airport.

Standing at the shuttle bus stop at 4:45am, a taxi approached and the driver asked if we wanted a ride to the airport because the bus we were waiting for was broke down a mile away. He had just observed it, stalled!! We said no and he wished us well on getting to the airport in time for  our flight. Ten minutes later the bus arrived right on time. So much for Irish business morals  (later in the day we would take an Uber in protest of taxis)!!!.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and as we went to the Are Lingus check-in, I reached for my bicycle bag, that had my computer and important travel documents in it, and realized I had left it on the bus, that left us at Terminal 2 five minutes ago!!! A nice young Are Lingus employee told me where the bus may be parked and that it might still be there. I ran out the building and down the street, in the drizzle, to find six busses parked, but not ours. I had ran down the wrong street and the young lass had tried to chase me down to tell me, but could not catch me, as I  was in my fastest ‘OJ Simpson’ mode of vaulting down the road. On returning to Terminal 2 she told me of my error and I was off again down the right street, at full speed. The rain was soaking my face and my glasses slipped down onto the bridge of my nose . . . so of course I ran right off  the curb without seeing it.

Down I went on my ankle, elbow and chest resulting in a bruised, bloody elbow, tire tracks on my shirt from skidding across the street and what I would find out later to be a sprained ankle. In typical guy fashion, I jumped up and continued running, finding the bus another block away. The driver was enjoying a cigarette and reading the morning paper and . . . there was my bag!!! Yippee!!!

I hobbled back to Terminal 2 and proceeded through the check-in, which was seamless . . . .

Soon we were in the air winging our way to Italy, flying over France and the Alps. Two hours and ten minutes later we landed in Milan. The beauty of the Google Pixel phone is it operates, at no extra charge, in over 140 countries. As we flew over France and into Italy, the phone sent my watch a text welcoming us to our current location, even though we were at 30,000 feet . . .

Soon we were on the ground in Milan and with no real direct way to the hotel, decided to Uber there with a ride provided by Simon. Easy peasy. His bio said he had made over 11,900 trips around Milan!!!! Barb and TommyH had arrived the night before, we tied up with them  and  . . .

. . .after checking in with our new best friend, concierge Gwen, . . .

. .. were soon lunching, al fresco, at a nice little restaurant right down the block. My ankle was ‘throbbing’ and several glasses of vino seemed to help!!!

. . .. oh and we shared a piece of dessert which gave me the strength to get back to the hotel . . . 

. . .on the way we passed a mail carrier using  a bicycle to make his deliveries’. Nice!!!!

. . . our room was now ready and I was able to put my foot up on the two pillows.

My left ankle was definitely swelling and emJay graciously played ‘Nancy the Nurse’ by running down the hall several times to fill an ice bag for my ankle. I was able to hobble down the street with the gang for a lovely Mediterranean dinner, made easier by the girls walking to a local pharmacy to get me an ankle brace . . . as TommyH and I drank wine on the roof top piazza located right off their room. Oh . . . we did save some for Barb and emJay!

We didn’t get back to the hotel from dinner until 10:30pm. Didn’t take long to  . . . zzzzz.