Well, the day has come, it is the end of our travel adventure to Rome and we must return back to Vancouver and our real lives!
We were picked up by the pre-arranged airport transportation company on time and whisked away to the Rome airport in plenty of time for our 2pm flight to Toronto and then continuing onto Vancouver. Having never flown out of the Rome airport previously, this was a new experience for both of us! I do remember the route that the gentleman took when bringing us to baggage from hour flight to Rome, so I was anticipating a similar departure gate area again. I was wrong – what a surprise!
After check-in with Air Canada – which left something to be desired in the way that it was handled, or lack there of, the agent told us to go next door to get assistance to get to the plane. Well, we looked and no one was around other than WestJet and their passengers! So we just decided to proceed on our own – I had plenty of time to rest on the plane. First, we went to the VAT refund area, very cool process that you can do electronically by scanning your documents into an ATM type machine. You provide your passport and it figures out what flight you are on, scan the receipt from in this case, the leather goods store, and provide a credit card for the refund to be placed on. Took 5 minutes and within 24 hours the 19 Euros I was owed were going to be credited to my credit card! Not a big amount, but every Euro counts! We even helped the lady use the machine next to us (as Liz and I are such wizzes with machines!) and she was getting over 200 Euros returned from shopping! That will be some declaration of goods at customs wherever she is traveling to!
Next we made it through security with no issues and walked to where we thought the gate for our flight would be departing from. The gate had not been announced yet, however I remembered the area of the airport that we had been in at arrival. As we walked along, I decided that I needed to fill up my water bottle, so I saw a “Family” washroom sign and decided to explore! What a cool room it was with private cubicles for babies to be nursed and a huge changing area with garbage cans and a sink. But the CUTEST thing was the washroom! It had both an adult and kids toilet in it! They do think of everything here!
Back on our walk to our assumed gate, where we had arrived a couple of weeks prior, we spotted some lounging chairs to hang out in. The actual gate area that we experienced on our arrival on Oct 10th was pretty small so these looked like a good place to relax, have our sandwiches’ and drinks. While I contemplated the aircraft activity out the window through my eyelids, Liz decided to go for a walk and to also see if the gate for our flight had shown up yet or not. In about 20 minutes she was back – the gate had been posted and we were in the wrong area now! Off we went to the gate where the plane was located which was on a remote terminal one had to access by train.
Luckily the train ride was short and we got to the gate right when Air Canada was starting to pre-board! They were a little confused as to where Liz and I had come from, as they were expecting me in a wheelchair, however all was good and they took us downstairs to wait to board the plane. I am not sure if this is a common thing in Italy and Spain or not – it seems every time I have arrived or departed from a major airport we are taken “downstairs” in order to board a plane through a jetway. There were a LOT of people waiting to pre-board the flight – it seemed to me that there was some other type of “pre-board” going on at the same time such as Business Class. So we waited about 30 minutes to get onto the plane, however this time there were no screaming babies/kids and I was successful getting on the plane with no issues.
Our flight to Toronto was spectacular – a 9.5 hour flight during the day on a Dreamliner (787)! The windows tint as they are needed to, or you can make them darker yourself. It was really cook when ice crystals appeared too! See my pics below.
Arriving in Toronto was a nightmare from an accessibility standpoint. First, my gate checked walker did not show up, so they put me in a wheelchair to get to the top of the jetway. Then someone appeared from the elevator carrying it! So re-united with it, Liz and I proceeded to go upstairs to the Customs Hall, however that being a long walk in Toronto, we were put in a cart to be taken there. We were first taken to a “transfer point” where we were to wait to take another cart to the Customs Hall, however as we could see the Customs Hall from the transfer area, we just walked instead. We got through Customs in a flash and now were back in Canada! I knew based on the gate number for our Vancouver flight it was going to be quite the walk and we had about 10 minutes at that point to get to the flight for pre-boarding. So I asked for a cart or wheelchair to take us there.
What a gong show, no one was available to do so, instead we were told to walk to the security check point and there are “lots” of Air Canada personnel to assist me. So off we walked and got to the security checkpoint area behind security and there was ONE Air Canada representative, trying to keep about 20 people going to Delhi on a 9pm flight under control. I explained that we had a very short connection and I was concerned we were not going to make it on time. The Air Canada lady said she would help us, however after waiting for about 5 precious minutes, I decided that we needed to get going on our own. At that point the Air Canada person noticed us getting in the elevator to go downstairs and grabbed a wheelchair and joined us going down to the gate area. I got into the wheelchair and Liz pushed my walker and we express walked to the gate and low and behold – no plane! So we were not actually late after all! The 777-300 that we were to take to Vancouver had not arrived yet. The Air Canada escort parked me at the gate and went back to deal with her Delhi wheelchair situation!
The gate agent was really great and saw my sunflower lanyard and agreed that I could preboard. On that flight, for some UNKNOWN reason, I was the only person pre-boarding, so it worked out well. No issues getting onto the plane, once it arrived 30 minutes late and we were off on our last leg of our journey! We were fed mushroom chicken again (second time today) and a fruit plane – oh joy! I got some rest and soon we were landing in Vancouver and pulling up to Gate 52 which is a close in gate without much walking needed. However where was my walker? It is MIA! Finally it was found at the TOP of the gate area – not at the door of the plane. So into a wheelchair I went and was pushed to where my walker was located and then Liz and I walked to baggage claim to get our luggage. There we parted ways as Liz just takes the Canada Line home and Andrew was picking me up on the Departures Level – as he has done for years!
We were home from a very fun, but exhausting vacation, to Italy! Now I have just under 2 weeks to prepare for my next vacation with Andrew! Stay tuned!
