“Airplane travel is nature’s way of making you look like your passport photo.” ~ Al Gore

Airline travel is not glamorous. The trip to the airport is usually stressful, check-in and long lines at security are frustrating.  The boarding process is sometimes like a free for all.  The flight across the ocean  is long and often bumpy and sleepless with awful food service.  You arrive at your destination and wait again in long lines to go through customs and to get your baggage!

“When checking in at an airport, no matter how rude the check-in person is to you, always smile and be nice because you don’t know what kind of day they’ve had. You are going on holiday and they’re stuck wherever they are. Be nice to them because they can re-route your baggage to wherever they feel like.”  ~ Ross Kemp

You may wonder in the middle of a sleepless day why on earth you travel.  Is all of the frustration that you have to put up with worth it?

Quite simply, once the haze of sleep deprivation lifts, either through a good night sleep, a hit of caffeine or a delicious meal, you take a deep breath in and let it go and realize you are in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

We finally arrived in the town of Cortona Italy tired exhausted but happy to have arrived.  We spent the afternoon walking through the town, in a bit of a (mind) fog, exploring and found the most wonderful restaurant, “Ristorante Il Cacciatore” for a relaxing and delicious lunch. We aimlessly wandered about for a while stopping for a cup of cappuccino until our rooms were ready.

Cappuccino

The villa where our group is staying is amazing (more on that in another blog).  The sights, the sounds, and the smells are enchanting.  To top it off we reunited with the rest of our friends and some new friends and were treated to an amazing dinner where we wined and dined.

It was a lovely ending to a long travel day.

“A good holiday is one that is spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours.”  ~ J. B. Priestly