We got to Tampa airport and then flew to Atlanta with no problems.  While waiting for our flight to Rome the airline needed people to be bumped.  They offered a $1,300 voucher for a flight anywhere and would put us up in a hotel for the night.  The next flight to Rome would be Saturday the next day at the same time. Shirley and I thought this was too good a deal to pass up.  We told the airline and they asked us to wait until the plane was boarded and they would make our arrangements.  However I would have to let our hotel in Rome know that we would be arriving a day later.  Since it was nearing midnight in Rome I called and told them. The plane had boarded when the airline told us that several passengers had missed the flight and that we should board.  Onto the plane we went- but I had to call the hotel before we took off.  Almost panic mode, but I was able to reach them and tell them the correct date of arrival.

We arrived in Rome got our luggage and headed to the train station for our trip into the city.  At the train station we found out that the Metro and some of the buses were on strike.  Now we had to do plan B.  We took a shuttle into the city that dropped us off at our hotel.  The shuttle was only €15 per person so that was a pretty good price.  On the trip into the city traffic was a mess due to the strike.  It is chaos, not organized chaos, just chaos.  When we got to the hotel they were having a problem with the plumbing on one of the floors and had to get us a room in a sister hotel. We had to wait while the hotel tried to get a taxi for us – near impossible. The taxi finally arrived and we took our lives in our hands trying to cross the street to get to it.  Rome was a giant mess.  Finally we arrived at our hotel and checked in.  It was about 1:30pm Rome time and we are sleep deprived and tired from traveling.