I’ve been coming here to Rome since 1972 — typically once in the spring and once in the fall — and it’s such a familiar experience that it hardly requires any conscious preparation at all. But some things do change over the years, even in the Eternal CIty; other details remain pretty much the same. Here’s what I’ve noticed on this trip, having just arrived a couple of hours ago:

1. Traffic congestion, both in NYC and Rome, is still unpredictable, and can still make you wonder whether you’re going to miss your flight completely. I left my apartment 3 hours before the flight this time, but it took almost two hours to reach JFK. Once upon a time, you could show up at the airport 20 or 30 minutes before the flight, and still have a chance to getting on the plane; in the post-9/11 days, the airlines have a strict rule that if you’re checkin baggage, you need to arrive a full hour before the flight. I made it with only minutes to spare this time.
2. But now you can check in, online, up to 24 hours before the flight. That’s been available for a year or two, of course, but I never saw the reason for bothering. This time, I decided to accept Delta’s email invitation to do an online checkin, and even told them I’d be checking one bag. That turned out to be a huge benefit, because it allowed me to get in a shorter checkin line when I got to JFK — i.e., the “baggage drop” line. And a gate agent whispered to me that, because of the online checking process I had gone through, they would even have given me a few minutes “grace period” if I arrived within the one-hour checkin deadline. They sure didn’t do that last year, when unexpected traffic congestion resulted in my arriving at JFK 55 minutes before my flight — and being told, in no uncertain terms, that I absolutely, positively could not get on the plane.
3. When the iPad first came out a month ago, airport security did not consider it to be a “computer” — so you didn’t have to take it out of your briefcase when going through the security line. Now, a month later, it is a computer, and it has to be put in a separate bin of its own. I wonder when they’ll decide that an iPhone is a computer.
4. I flew coach class to Rome this time — just like the last several flights. I don’t know if business-class tickets were ever really affordable, but when they hit $7,000 they certainly left most of us mortals behind. But for a while, I could still travel business-class with my frequent-flyer points. Now it’s 250,000 miles … which is enough for half a dozen free domestic flights.
5. But the “back of the plane” isn’t so bad, if you can select a reasonable seat. I don’t know who gets stuck with middle seats these days, but I got an aisle bulkhead seat right by the airplane door. Once they closed the door, I had about ten feet of leg-room. Of course, the food was pretty bad; but I’m sure not going to spend $7,000 (or 250,000 miles) to get a decent meal on a flight that mostly involves sleeping across the Atlantic.
6. Having an iPad with 30 books on it is really a great way to travel. Having a Kindle on last year’s flight was pretty cool, too, but the iPad is way cooler. But nobody else on the plane wanted to look at it….
7. As we took off from JFK, the pilot reassured us that even though the Iceland volcano was somewhat active again, it wouldn’t affect us; since we were flying to southern Italy instead of northern Europe, I guess we could give Iceland a wide berth. But what interested me most was that there was no reaction from anyone else on the plane. It’s amazing how everyone just assumes that everything about the flight will be safe.

So that’s it. The flight arrived on time, my suitcase was on the baggage carousel before I even got through customs, and the ride to the downtown hotel was uneventful. It’s been raining all day, so I’m not going even attempt a photographic excursion right now; there will still be plenty to photograph tomorrow. Or the next day. Or next year. The Eternal City will always be here…