Rome Airport - on my way to Budapest

Here I am at the airport in Rome (Fiumicino) waiting for my flight connection to Budapest. I wonder why Italian cities are so beautiful and Italian airports are so crap.  I mean, Rome is the eternal city, the capital of Italy, it’s worldwide famous and welcomes thousands of tourists every year….and still, it's impossible to find a trolley cart  (which is very bad if you have heavy luggage), there are no plugs if you want to recharge your laptop (my unfortunate  case) AND THE FOOD IS SOOOO BAD….everything –pastries, sandwiches, cakes- seem to have been defrosted a few seconds before being served. Oh my, is this the welcome we give to foreigners visiting the eternal city?? (well, and actually to Italians too).

The only things worth a stop in Fiumicino are the shops. You can find Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Intimissimi and La Perla stores side by side with food shops, newsagents and even a massage center.

Having travelled quite a lot in the last years, I have my personal list of world class airports:

1. Dubai Airport (AMAZING, you can find palms, brand new Ferrari on sale, prayer rooms for Muslims, starbucks coffee shop selling the best mint-lemonade ever!)
2. Osaka Airport (very Japanese, very efficient, very clean, with free computers with free wi-fi- yes, the Japanese know how to treat foreigners)
3. Bangkok Airport (very artistic with lots of huge statues symbolizing divinities, excellent Thai restaurants and prayer rooms for Buddhist monks, come on, this is civilization indeed)
4. Helsinki Airport (it has the best delicacy store of all Northern Europe- many types of  rye bread, Fazer chocolate, salty liquorice, leipäjuusto (the famous bread cheese) Finnish vodka, sauna kits and lots of beautiful Finnish handicraft).

One thing is anyway for sure. No matter how ugly or dirty, airports have always fascinated me.

My husband is right when he says: “you like to brush your teeth in the toilet of  an international airport because it makes you feel a truly cosmopolitan woman”. Right: I love to brush my teeth in airports toilets…so, what’s wrong with that??

This is me in Rome, just before brushing my teeth.

BUDAPEST I AM COMING!!