January 23, 2026

Amman, Jordan > Milano/Roma, Italy

Today we Amman and move on to Italy. V is going to Roma to meet Ali’s father and spend a few days with Ali. We are on our way to Milano. V’s plane leaves at 10:30 and ours at 12:00. We only had one airport transfer booked, so we all went at 08:00 to the airport.

We are all in Crown or Business class so check-in is a breeze. They even have a special line for screening and passport control of Royal Jordanian Air customers. It all worked out, however. Again, as Crown class we had access to the Crown class lounge. V simply went on to his gate and Mary and I hung in the lounge.

Just as V’s plane was taking off at 10:30 we headed down to our gate. We stoped at one of the exchange places and changed our Jordanian Dinars into Euros. Although the exchange rate isn’t favorable, once we leave Jordan the money is basically worthless. So, a Euro, even an expensive one, is better than holding money you can’t spend.

The flight was uneventful. Mary still doesn’t like the staggered seats on these Royal Jordanian flight, but they are nice if you just want to sleep. They don’t go flat be they do get pretty close. The food served wasn’t bad. I tried to sleep as much as possible.

We were in Milano three-and-a-half hours later. We were about thirty minutes early. Our European passport let us breeze through passport control. The bags actually came up very quickly. I had scheduled a car for 15:00 but when we got out of the controlled area it was still only a quarter. I am giving Transfeero, a Sicilian car service, a try. They wanted €145 for the trip to the apartment we have booked near V’s school, Bocconi.

It seemed reasonable. The train would have been €15 each just to get us to Centrale. Then we would with have to switch to the Metro, take the #3 to Duomo, then switch to the #15 tram, to get to the apartment. Ok, the Metro and Tram would probably have cost no more than €3 each. However, it would probably have taken us close to three hours to get to the apartment. The car and driver from Transfeero got us there is just a little bit over and hour. So, maybe is was €100 more, but we didn’t have to drag the three large suitcases through the city; one of which is V’s.

The apartment is within 100 meters of V’s school. It is a newer apartment building, probably from the 1960’s or 1970’s. There is a doorman, who was nice enough to let us in out of the rain to wait for Luigi to bring us the keys. Luigi arrived about twenty minutes after us, complaining about the weather and traffic.

The apartment is on the first floor (2nd to Americans). It shares and elevator with one other apartment on the floor. We have to enter through the service access, because the front door is broken. Really? Yes, Luigi explains they have called the landlord to fix the door but they have no idea when that might happen. We also learned that the nightly tourist/hotel tax had gone up 300% - from €3.5 to €9.5 per person per night. Probably has been adjusted for the Olympics which are in town. The increase went into effect on January 1. The Olympics start next month.

The apartment is nice. There are two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a small kitchen and a fairly good-sized living room. No towels in the kitchen. Enough beds we could house six more people. They are Italian beds so very firm. Like most places there is no control over the heating. If it gets too cold, get another blanket. If it is to hot, open a window. Normal things here, but not an issue.

We get organized and head out to the Tuday Conad supermarket just across Via Gian Castlebarco. It isn’t raining, ok maybe a very light sprinkle. It is cold, but we have jackets and gloves. We buy a few things for the apartment, and some baked chicken and potatoes for dinner. Mary picks up some vegetables. We get back to the apartment and heat things up in the microwave. Not very powerful, and it takes a couple minutes to get anything warm.

We have dinner at the dinning table in the living room. I make some tea and Mary uses the one wine glass in the apartment for its stated purpose. After dinner it is find and extra comforter for the bed and climb in for the night.

Rather uneventful day.

Buonanotte e ciao

Enrico e Maria