Getting Home

My trip home was uneventful. Check-in and getting through security in Rome were both very quick processes, so I had time for breakfast and a final cappuccino in one of the airport lounges.  My flights home were unremarkable, but I did need almost all of the two hours I had in Paris to change terminals. CDG airport is a bit of a gong show, isn't it?  I wonder what wizard came up with the terminal numbering system.  My boarding pass said I was departing from Terminal 2. But that wasn't particularly helpful, since Terminal 2 has seven different buildings.  Westjet flies from Terminal 2E, and it turns out that Terminal 2E has three separate buildings (2E, 2E hall L, and 2E hall M). Yikes.  

Westjet's food was much better heading back to Canada that it had been on my flight to Europe.  The seat next to me on my Calgary flight was vacant, which always feels like a win.

I arrived back in Canada to find Calgary snow-free and warm for November.  I drove to Canmore on Wednesday night then back home on Thursday morning. Since that time, the roads have been snowy, slushy, and downright awful, so I'm lucky to have arrived when I did.

Final Thoughts

First, the good stuff:

• Sue was a great touring companion.  I knew that would be the case, since we'd travelled together before and have known each other forever.  It was good that we were both flexible regarding planning, so that we could deal with weather issues and getting colds.

• The people of Sardinia are wonderful.  For anyone who has visited Newfoundland, they are THAT friendly. Just a delight. We didn't encounter a cranky person on the island.
• The interior of Sardinia was fabulous - beautiful landscapes, sheep, sheep, and more sheep, rocks and more rocks, nuraghi, friendly dogs and friendlier farmers.
• It was fun to get in a couple of ocean swims.  The weather got cool at the end of the trip, so it's hard to remember that we arrived to perfect summer temperatures.
• The history.  All of it.  I'm glad to have finally visited the major sites of Rome, but there was something mind-blowing to see just about every day - archaeological sites, trulli, nuraghi, cave houses. It goes on and on. 
• Food - our multi-course agriturismo dinner was delicious, I ate my weight in pecorino, the porchetta sandwich in Alghero was crazy good, gelato was generally great (if not always easy to find), and cornetto pastries and Italian clementines kept me fuelled. Breakfasts in B&Bs were better and more substantial than I expected them to be. Decaf coffee was available fresh ground in every café I visited.  Pistachio-flavoured everything was a theme (pastry, gelato, chocolate, even sprinkled on pasta). Looking back at my many pizza meals, I think I like the Roman pizza al taglio best - that's pizza by the slice with a nice thin crust. 
• All the rental rooms and apartments were great. Not a dud among them. They were very clean. Internet was excellent everywhere except two places where it was slow, and one where it wasn’t provided.
• My Airolo eSIM was easy to purchase and worked flawlessly. Next time, I would buy a shorter duration eSIM with less data, and then just top it up weekly.  Top ups are easy to manage and happen automatically if you choose that option. 
• Visiting Italy in late October and November has its advantages - it was easy to find excellent and reasonably-priced accommodation, crowds were light, and there was no need to book anything ahead.  For me, the temperatures were just about perfect. 
• My bike worked well, and I had no aches or pains relating to bike fit.  I had no flats or mechanicals. Navigation using Komoot worked fine. Most of the time I relied on the Garmin Edge 530 for directions, but I use the Komoot app on my phone to see the bigger picture. I do wish the Garmin's brain was a bit quicker, but we got along better this year now that I know she's slow to recalculate route changes.    

• Cycling-wise, a few areas stand out in my memory- in Sardinia, La Maddalena is a great place to bike, and the ride from Ittiri downill to the coast, then along the coast to north of Bosa was spectacular. In Puglia, the views and country roads around Alberobello/Locorotondo were wonderful, and the Adriatic coast from Santa Marie di Leuca north to Lecce is spectacular.

Things I wish were different:

• It sounds like a weird thing to say, but at times I really wished there were more tourists. Sardinia REALLY shuts down in November. In places, it was hard to find open restaurants. I'd love to return to Sardinia in the spring, or maybe late September/early October. Things were quiet in Puglia too, but not quite to the same extent as Sardinia.

• I didn't need to experience Storm Ciaran. The headwind we faced on the way to Alghero was nasty. On a brighter note, it made us change our plans and head inland, which was great.

• Lots of Puglian drivers like to speed and don't provide nearly as much space as I'd like. They also like to toot their horns as a warning that they're going to drive past you even if there is oncoming traffic.  I'm not a fan. 
• Garbage on the road sides. C'mon Italy, you can do better.  For a starter, maybe try a deposit on bottles...

• Both Sue and I got sick.  Although it didn't slow us down much, we were both stuffed up and coughing, which isn't much fun. My cough is finally fading away now that I've been home for a week.  
• Gear-wise, there's not much I'd change.  I should've brought my titanium spork, but I survived with some pilfered bamboo cutlery. I didn't need to bring the keyboard for my iPad, because it turns out that I wrote most of my journal on my iPhone.  You know your gear choices were pretty good when all you can come up with adding is a spork.  I've ordered a saddle to replace my comfortable but sometimes annoyingly creaky one.
• Seeing Puglia on my own was fine, but given the choice, I'd have a travelling companion because there are a lot more laughs.
• Late November weather wasn't ideal, but it was better than the weather at home :-)