Tuesday, September 29 Rome, Amsterdam, Portland, Medford, Home

The evening before we had made arrangements for a Taxi. We could even put it on our room charge if we wanted. Still cost $20, which I thought was outrageous. But considering it was 4:30 in the morning, I guess that helped. No traffic anywhere, stop signs are optional! Speed optional! Arrived at the terminal really fast. Maybe 10 minutes. We had printed our tickets out at the kiosks the night before so we were ready for security. Glad we were early, no one in security yet, they were all outside checking in luggage and getting boarding passes. We were still a little concerned about our luggage, this time because of the pizza cutters we were bring back. They had made Jerry at the Palermo airport,  open his small bag to show them the pizza cutters. The gal went around the corner to talk to someone, came back and said okay. So we knew this could be an issue. Nope, not this time. But Jerry was selected for a full body scan. He had to stand there about 5 minutes until the person showed up to do it. No problem, and we were in. The flight left at 6:20 am from Rome on KLM airlines, on time. Got into Amsterdam about 8:45.
Lots of time before 10:30 flight. Thought we would get some breakfast, but being careful people we immediately looked for our next gate with Delta airlines. Guess what, another line to get into departures. This one was for passports, to check us out of Europe. So very tired of lines! So we show our ticket and passport, the passport gets stamped and we are inside again. I thought it was odd that several Delta flights had the same gate number E4. That is because there was another set of lines! So sick of lines! I thought maybe to security check our luggage again. Nope, extra  verbal check by Delta."Has anyone given you anything to carry on, has your luggage been with you the whole time, do you have a package given to you to take back to the US". Actually, a good check because no one else had asked this. Not even in the airport in Portland when we left.
Done with that, and they give us a new gate number. Now it is close to boarding time, usually 1/2 hour before flight leaves. No food around. So we board our flight to Portland worried about food.
No problem. They feed us a snack, lunch, another snack, more drinks, more drinks. It was great, got really hydrated.
The arrival at the Portland airport was annoying. It arrived on time, but again we had a shuttle bus to the terminal. Because we could not print our boarding pass out with Alaska over 24 hours in advance,  and at that time we were on a plane, we were shuttled out of the secure area, across to baggage claim. Bummer. Went up to Alaska counter to see if there was an earlier flight to Medford than 4:15, and requested they print our boarding passes. No problem, no earlier flight. Back through security, which at around noon was not very busy. We were TSA prescreened, so that helped. Again we wondered about the pizza cutters, but no problem. Got lunch or maybe the hamburger was technically dinner. My god that Burgerville hamburger was great. Even walked way out of our way for it. Now I just need a juicy thick steak.
Flight to Medford went fine, daughter Kim picked us up at 5:30 and away we went over the hill home to Klamath Falls. Picked up our dog, who obviously missed us, I think. Wonderful trip, would not trade it for the world, next time I'll avoid the tourist sites (popular ones), maybe see the east coast of Italy. Or some quiet island.
Picture below is of Canadian Rockies as we passed over Canada.