T'was the Nightmare Before Christmas...

I have been in Italy for 4 months and was really looking forward to seeing my family and friends in the US again. Though I hated leaving my boo in Italy, I was very much ready for my glorious return to the US. The Friday before my scheduled Monday departure Florence recieved an unprecedented amount of snow, 8 inches. This may not seem like a lot to most people, but in Italy it was enough to pretty much shut down the country. Friday was great because the snow was really festive and I didn't have to go anywhere except to turn in my grades. Andy got off work early in the market and we enjoyed watching the snow from our apartment and cooking all sorts of delicious warm food. The snow remained for the next two days and I hibernated inside, packing and cleaning and finishing my Christmas preparations. Monday morning I awoke at 3:30 to prepare myself for my taxi to the airport that I was scheduled to take at 5 AM. I had no idea that I would not arrive back in Charleston until exactly 48 hours later!
My taxi driver came right on schedule, and surprisingly the ride only took 8 minutes, even though there was still all over the rodes that this man decided to take. Guess it was just because he still didn't drive with caution, like every Italian on the roads. When I walked into the airport, I couldn't even move because there were so many people inside. Every flight out of Florence had been cancelled since Saturday because the city has no equipment to clear the snow. My flight to Frankfurt ended up being delayed until 8:30 and they wouldn't let us check in early because there were so many people checking into other flights, so I just had to stand in a clump of people in the ticketing room with my fellow travelers. Though Florence is a popular travel destination, the airportis one of the smallest I have ever been in, even smaller than the Jacksonville, NC airport! So not to my surprise the airport was a giant cluster. When we finally were allowed to check our luggage in, the airport staff alerted us that we would be boarding a bus to Pisa because Florence had to much fog for our plane to get in, so we were going to meet it instead. After the hour and a half bus ride to Pisa, we were delayed yet again, not taking off until 11 AM, when my flight was scheduled to leave Frankfurt at 11:40. So we all arrive in Germany, and pretty much everyone on the flight had missed their connections, sowe were all forced into ridiculously long lines to start the re-ticketing process. There were no flights heading back to the US for the rest of the day that weren't booked solid, but I ended up being incredibly lucky and getting the last seat available on any flight to the US for the following day, which was a relief. Then Lufthansa booked me into the hotel attached to the airport because they were trying to get as many people out of the airport as possible since it was so crowded. I spent the rest of my day watching BBC world news, where the only story they kept talking about were the horrible travel conditions in Europe and how it was hurting the economy even more. My hotel had ridiculously priced food, so I ended up eating German pretzels and drinking beer in the comfort of my hotel room, which is a lot better than a lot of other people fared, but I really just wanted to get back to the US.
The next day I woke up and made my way straight to the airport. of course my flight out of Germany ended up being delayed for 3 hours because our plane was stuck in Manchester, England and couldn't get out. The flight went quite smoothly and I watched four movies to pass the time. Of course, since I got the last available ticket, I had the last seat on the plane, so I was the last person to recieve food every time the crew came around, so I had no options and got served the worst crap, like some "beef burgundy" that had one mouthful of beef in it and a lot of sauce. When we arrived in Charlotte, every person on the flight had missed their connecting flights, especially after we all had to go through the ridiculously long customs lines and recheck luggage/re-ticket. I finally got a seat on the last flight to Charleston for the night, and hoofed my way over to the gate. After sitting for a while, it was announced that our flight to Charleston would be delayed due to a crew switch. I literally thought I was going to lose it by that point, but found solace in a smoothie I bought across the hall. I was finally allowed to board the flight, and was seated next to a really nice man who chatted with me for the entirety of the flight, so my last flight "flew" by. I ended up arriving in Charleston at 9:00 US time, 3:00 AM Italy time last night, and ran to my family at the arrivals gate. It was an incredibly long, nightmarish journey, but it made me even more happy to be home with my family for Christmas. Keep all the travelers in Europe in your thoights because many will not be making it home for Christmas since the weather conditions are not improving. Happy Holidays everyone, and Buone Feste a tutti!