Love that dirty water

Home safe, but nearly not quite. Thanks to some bad timing, too much breakfast, and a very cautious driver on the Leonardo Express, the ticket gate was closed when we got to the airport. (At Fiumicino, there is a separate ticket line for each flight.) The woman there couldn't log into Delta's system to print our boarding passes, so she sent us to security with nothing more than the wrinkled itinerary we'd printed out before leaving. One laid-back security dude and a lot of Amazing Race-style running later, we made it to the gate, got scolded for being late, and joined the back of the boarding line. We ended up with a row of three seats all to ourselves, and had quite a nice flight, with tiny ice cream cones.

Fortune was on our side: the plane was delayed 20 minutes, and we had no bags to check. If either of those things were not true, we'd still be in Italy. As it is, we're home, and awaiting the delivery of our cat.