Day 13- There and Back Again...

The last day....not much to discuss here, so here's a list of observations on our way home.

1) Florence airport, still one of the easiest airports to reach via an inexpensive, beautiful taxi ride; as they say, "(florence), I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave."

2) Vienna Airport- While the main airline (Austrian) serves tasty, exquisite food in flight, this airport is one of the smokiest enclosed spaces excluding that glass smokers' box present in some airports (seen below). 

3) Nothing says "welcome home,  newlyweds!" like being placed in the customs line for suspicious individuals entering the country. Apparently, someone thought us to be worthy of scrutiny, and sent us to sit down with our luggage and without an explanation for almost 30 minutes. You see, to some, traveling to far away places is an opportunity, a rewarding experience, perhaps even something to be envied. To others, as we discovered, it's downright suspicious. Maybe a passport with Laos, Russia, and Pakistan/Kashmir might raise an eyebrow at customs, but one would think it simpler to simply ask the beaming, young couple with "Just Married" tags on their bags what was the nature of this travel, before making them seriously consider getting back on a plane to Italy if this was the way citizens are treated....

4) Traveling is enlightening. Traveling with a companion is doubly so. Returning to a home created and warmed by two love-struck humans is as good as it gets...for now :)

Thanks for reading, and thereby joining us on our honeymoon adventure. Stay tuned for more. Until then, a few quotes to part us.

~We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. (Hilaire Belloc)

~Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen. (Benjamin Disraeli)

~The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway. (Henry Boye)

~Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends. (Maya Angelou)

~Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. " (Miriam Beard)

With Love,

Tony + Emily Battista