We have 🛬 in 🇮🇹!

 Ciao dall'italia!

We have been in Italy for 1.5 weeks!

Most importantly, all three of us arrived safely!

Many of our military friends joked, harassed, and barbed us about taking the rotator to Naples. They had cynical comments in person, laughing emojis on social media, and a lot of "good luck" - all made with love and in jest and yet we knew that something must be up! Taking the rotator was the only option for us, we wouldn't have driven, literally, across the entire country had there been a different option. The intro to our rotator experience: "please begin your check in process up to 5hours prior to departure." I'M SORRY, WHAT?! I honestly thought it was a misprint. We could have cut a lot of that time down by checking our bags the day before, so we repacked and carefully laid out all the paperwork and Olaf necessary things for our departure day, caught an Uber to the AMC Terminal on Norfolk Naval Base - four checked bags and a kennel in tow - and were ready to checkin 24hrs before our departure. Apparently minutes after we got off our 45 minute hold and then speaking to a representative to confirm this process, their system "went down." There was no way to get our bags checked and we'd have to do it all in the morning. Any hope of cutting that 5hr check in time down was lost so we called another UberXL and lugged everything back to our hotel room. 

   All ready to go at the AMC Terminal in Norfolk! It looks like a lot of stuff but it has 1.5 months of Alaska life luggage and Italy life luggage until we see our House Hold Goods again.

 

Our check in DID take 5 hours and for good measure there was a 2 hour departure delay. Luckily we could hang out with Olaf most of the time. He had to be kenneled but we are grateful we kennel trained him as a puppy and he's always felt safe in his own space. As they scanned our checked backs the guy laughed and said, "Dude it looks like you have a bunch of knives in there." "Ummmmm, 🤭, we do. They're chef knives." No way we were going to be in a hotel for potentially three months without the ability to cut some onions! After waiting, and more waiting, and small talking with other waiters, we got to check our bags. 

Getting closer!

      First, we had to read a letter informing us that 3 dogs had died in flights in the last two weeks. As my internal freak out started to manifest outwardly in my eyes, Brian noted that the letter was from the summer. A mild sedative to my freakout since the cargo hold is so much more unsafe in the heat of summer than the dead of winter.

 We were so nervous about Olaf doggy. Bulldogs, and other breeds with flat faces, die in flight regularly regardless of the season. They get anxious, and thus pant heavily, with it being harder to catch their breath they can easily suffocate in the cargo hold. In the copious amount of research and reading in the last seven months I read a blog about a bulldog that didn't make it. Every pocket of air we hit we wondered what was going through is head - especially when we dropped faster and harder than I've ever experienced but just for a split moment. We had to land in Shannon Ireland in the middle of the night to refuel and while we got to get off to stretch our legs we weren't permitted to give Olaf the same break. 

  

We landed in Naples to sunrise over Vesuvius - colloquially know as Vesuvio - and a there was a moment of intense relief, calm, and excitement in a combination that I've never experienced. Passport control was oddly easily, but I guess that's what blue passports, red passports, visas, and a file folder of paperwork gets us.

Our sponsor, Jillian, met us at the door. 

"Your dog is around the corner but he looks very sad."

I was immediately in tears, and, apparently, exclaimed rather loudly, "THAT MEANS HE'S ALIVE" I've left the punctuation off there because I'm not sure if it was a question or an exclamation or something in between. He was definitely dehydrated. He was definitely sad. He didn't see us but spun his head real fast when we called to him "OLAF DOGGY!"

The moment our passports and visas were cleared and stamped by the Polizia!

 

I could have cried tears of joys that the worst case was he was sad!

While we caught up on the timezone Olaf kept watch on the piazza

       

We are all safely in Naples Italy. We are now adjusted to the ten hour time difference from home and we are embracing a lot of new everything. More to come.

A time lapse of our journey from AK to Canada, through 9 states, and onward to Italy