This quote sums up my trip to Italy last week. Midway through an stressful week at work I peaced out of my office early to make an early evening flight to Florence via Frankfurt for a wedding. After sitting on a plane for 1.5 hours we were told there was a mechanical problem and we were being moved to another plane. Then due to crew work hour restrictions the flight was cancelled, meaning we were going to miss the Rehearsal dinner. 

Because the trip was short (5 days), this was cutting it even shorter and we almost just stayed at home. After we stopped feeling sorry for ourselves we smarted up and one hour phone call later with United got on a 2 pm flight the next day. While I realize these things happen, basically everyone we spoke with at United was rude and unhelpful in this situation (minus a Customer Service agent named Guy) and I will try my hardest not to fly with them again. 

Our flight to Frankfurt went off without a hitch, and were beginning to think smooth sailing was ahead until we got to Frankfurt. Low and behold the only flight cancelled in the entire airport was our flight to Florence. Seriously? I was beginning to get nervous thinking maybe there was a reason we couldn’t get to Italy. 

We weren’t going out quietly.. we were already in Europe and were determined to make it to Florence. Make it we did, thanks to the extremely kind crew over at Lufthansa in Frankfurt. Seriously, I cannot say enough about how helpful and thoughtful they were there! We ended up flying into Bologna and taking a bus to 
Florence.

All said and done, we missed the wedding in Florence. Yeah, we flew all the way to Italy for 4 days a wedding and missed the wedding. We did make the Reception but I can’t say I was really all there (I didn’t sleep a wink on the flight over) and made a big splash at the Reception. I was on a “shot of strong Italian espresso every 10 minute” program at the wedding which kept me going until 2 am. 

The entire time we were in Italy (all of 4 days) I kept waiting for something bad to happen. I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason so I can only learn from this experience. 

I did learn that my relationship with Ben is rock solid. Going through travel hell with someone and not even getting attitudes with each other in the meantime is amazing. It took 2 days to get to Italy and while we were only there for 4 days, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.