Avoiding the Issue

Next month, Jose and I are off to Rome for a friend’s wedding. When the invitation arrived, we deliberated for some time whether we ought to go. We already had a trip to England planned for August and, after last Christmas, we’d decided to go somewhere far from LA this December. In the end, we decided we really couldn’t stretch the budget to another European trip, but I whipped out my trusty credit card and booked the thing anyway. It was too good an opportunity to miss.

The thing with flying from L.A. to Rome is that you can’t do it in one shot. The alternatives for connections seemed to be Frankfurt, Paris or Amsterdam, but the cheapest flight I could find was on British Airways via Heathrow. In my opinion, BA has gone down the tubes a bit recently; their fleet is getting old and their service has become shoddy. After flying airlines such as LAN Chile, Virgin or Air France, I’ve come to expect a certain level of comfort and attention on my long-haul flights and BA is just not up to scratch.

The bigger issue, though is the fact that in going via London, we would practically have to fly over my mother’s house and the thought of being in England, being “home,” and not getting to see my Mum was just too much to handle. I considered cutting our time in Italy by a day or two, and making a whistle stop visit to Mum, but in the end, I did the more sensible thing—bought a more expensive flight via Paris, because Paris really is too far to justify hopping over for a day.

So, if anyone has recommendations for ways to while away some time in Rome, I’m all ears. And if anyone is planning a trip to England anytime soon, please look in on my Mum for me. She makes and excellent cup of tea.