DAY 1. HEADING TO ROME. It was time to fly out for Rome. I had a mix of excitement and anxiety. Though through much prayer and truthful thinking my anxiousness was diminishing. The planning of this trip had been going on for so long, that it made the actual event seem almost unreal. "Is this really happening?" The nearly nine hour flight to Rome went by surprisingly easily. I watched a few inflight movies. Stayed surprisingly comfortable. Though I had hopes of sleeping, I didn't. Deespite the inflatable neck pillow that I purchased on Amazon. I had purchased an inflatable neck pillow so I didn't have to carry around a big bulk as we packed minimally. This is Vanessa's total luggage for the entire 18 day trip! So proud of my wife!! We were traveling with 50L backpacks. If it didn't fit... we couldn't take it. We packed about 5 outfits for the entire 18 day trip. We bought "quick dry" type clothing that we could wash and hang dry