Getting There: Atlanta → London → Rome
Travel day, or as we now call it, The Gauntlet. It started civilized enough — a Groome shuttle from Macon up to Atlanta — and then we boarded a 10:30pm British Airways flight to London. Now, to save money, we’d booked it so we had to grab our bags in London, walk them back through baggage check, re-check in, and clear security all over again before we could even sit and wait for the Rome leg. Genius plan. Truly.
And the flight to London? A war crime. Huge plane, packed to the gills, air conditioning that worked when it felt like it, and seats that made a cinder block in a sardine can sound like first class. My backside went numb in thirty minutes flat, the Valium took one look at my nerves and quit, and I white-knuckled the entire Atlantic.
After a three-hour layover spent questioning every choice that led us here, the London-to-Rome hop finally redeemed the airline gods — roomier plane, working air, actual comfortable seats. Turns out the trip can be enjoyable. They just make you earn it first.
