Our two-week trip to Italy sort of snuck up on us. We’ve been doing so much lately that thinking about travel that’s not taking place within the next day or two isn’t something we’re able to think about. We went to Melbourne a fortnight ago and then Julian visited last weekend so what with work, friends and family, there wasn’t much time to think about Italy. Fortunately, we’d done enough to ensure it would all go off without a hitch.

I spent Thursday night and Friday getting the final things ready for our departure. This involved finally fixing the blinds in the spare bedroom that had fallen down more than a year ago (and again when Julian visited in January, the collapse of which nearly frightened him half to death). I was able to screw the blinds back into the wall and hopefully it’ll last the two weeks that the house sitter is staying.

The rest of the tasks involved washing, tidying, buying cat food and kitty litter, getting my haircut, buying other odds and ends, and finalising a few bits of our actual trip. Despite all the rushing around and the tight timeframes on Friday, we managed to leave the house a little early and got to the airport (thanks to our complimentary chauffeur) with plenty of time to spare.

I feel that one big coup for the trip has been packing only enough that fits into our carry-on suitcases (and a backpack). I always think of Europe as a ‘big suitcase’ place but we’ve fought against it. Glen’s luggage clocked in at only 8kg (helped by the fact that he’s not bringing a 3kg laptop). Mine was about 10kg (because I’m the one with the laptop). The airline let us take it all on board without having to check it; much obliged.

Perth to Abu Dhabi

Check-in was no problem; Bernard (with the accent on the ‘-nard’) was helpful. Border security has become even more automated since we last travelled internationally. Now you can put your passport in the machine, much as you do on your return, and it takes your photo. You don’t have to talk to anyone. The border security officer sitting at the desk looked especially bored. I wondered if she looked that way because her job had become almost obsolete or they just hire surly people.

One word of warning when using these machines: they will try to take your fingers. The passport goes into the scanner on a kind of tray and if you hold it down, your fingers go with it. After the machine, came security. We were also meant to dump out green departure cards in the box between border control and security; I did, Glen didn’t. Turns out it didn’t matter either way.

From security we went to the Qantas lounge, had a bite to eat and waited for our flight to Abu Dhabi. The flight was on the Dreamliner, which we’d flown before on the return journey when coming back from Canada. We had seats together in the middle but they faced backwards so take off and landing felt strange.

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Business Class was full. There were a few children around, including a gorgeous baby in the seats in front (behind?) us. Glen remarked that a bunch of them sounded like they had some infection but I didn’t notice. They weren’t screaming, as far as I could tell, so no problem there.

The flight was about 11 hours. We settled ourselves in, ordered our food, took off, ate our meals (I had duck breast salad to start, followed by salmon, and then a dessert of salted caramel chocolate slice and fruit salad) and watched X-men: Apocalypse together. The film was better than I expected, though I kept trying to reconcile it with X-men 1, 2 and 3 and figured that Days of Future Past must have negated them or else the continuity falls out of whack.

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After all that was done, I went to sleep for a few hours, rocked by turbulence. Then we landed in Abu Dhabi. Eleven hours had gone by pretty quickly and even though I was tired, I couldn’t help but feel so grateful that I’d been able to lie flat.

Abu Dhabi to Milan

When we landed in Abu Dhabi, we dithered over the lounge. The Premium Lounge was right in front of us but the signs for the Business Lounge pointed down the corridor. I led the charge, overriding Glen’s concerns, and we walked down the long corridor only to find the signs pointing back the way we came.

We then went into the Premium Lounge area, Glen insisting that it was the same as last time (apart from the fact this one was upstairs while the other was not), and then listening in to a family being told that they needed to go opposite gate 35. We started to head back in the direction we’d come from but I asked someone and they said we were in the right place.

Turns out we were but we were in a different (smaller) lounge than the one we’d been to in May. Though smaller, it had everything we needed. I went for a shower – which was heavenly – and then had a bit of food. Two young children played a game of hide-and-seek with each other. They were cute.

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Despite the comfort, three hours dragged. I was keen to get back to bed. It was 5am Perth time and about 2am in Abu Dhabi, which meant 11pm in Italy. We boarded at 2:45am, the plane older than the Dreamliner but still comfortable. The flight attendant was great; considering the time he was quick to suggest that we order now and eat about an hour before landing. That worked for me. I took half a sleeping pill, put on my eyemask, stuck in the earplugs and slept…for about three hours.

For a seven hour flight, I expected I’d sleep at least six and wake up, stuff my face, then get off the plane. For some reason I could not sleep through any of the last three hours of the flight. I dozed for a bit, then got up a couple of times to use the bathroom, and on the last was served breakfast. Oh well. No more sleep for Dan.

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Breakfast was nice with yoghurt, a muffin, fresh fruit, and a turkey, egg and mushroom mix thing. I washed most of The Huntsman (better than the one with Snow White but still a little lacking), and then we landed in Milan. We had arrived in Italy.