Road trip in Sicily, part one: A difficult start

(Date: 14.07.2007)
(Written: 17.07.2007)

Our trip to Sicily started under a bad omen, but thankfully all was solved after a few days. First we went to Zurich airport quite early, to avoid stress (it was going to be a very busy day in the airport, with most of Switzerland starting the summer holidays that day). We didn't have any worries though, and had time to check-in quietly, have something to eat and then join the boarding room with no rush.

Rush we did, however, in Napoli, our first stop. The airline (Air One) had planned only 40 minutes to change plane, and we trusted them. Unfortunately, we left Zurich 15 minutes late (not too bad), and we had to go through immigration in Napoli. After that, we had quite a rush to join the boarding gate for Palermo, and even then the plane had to wait on us and our fellows passengers. Bad planning Air One, but the worst was to come! They lost our bag! Apparently, the reason for the loss was not even the rush in Napoli, but the bag never left Zurich at all.

After waiting for quite some time in Palermo, it was quite clear our bag would not arrive. We were not alone in that situation, apparently all the bags from Zurich were lost (I am still wondering what the heck our plane carried in its belly, since our luggage was definitely not there!) So after a while, we lodged a 'lost bag' report and went to get our rental car. That went well, and a moment later we were on the road for the one hour drive from Palermo to Marsala, in a very nice Fiat Punto.

The bag story went further. After calling the call center a few times, and not getting any information about the location of our bag, one idiot at Air One's call center found very clever to tell us that the bag was in Palermo! Very happy about it, we drove the Marsala-Palermo highway again, only to find out that the idiot didn't even know how to read the system, and in fact the bag was still missing in action. Not only that, but no one was able to tell me (24 hours after our arrival) where the bag was exactly (probably Rome), and to tell me on which plane it would be loaded. Hard to believe, in those days of terrorism where you'd expect that every luggage is carefully registered and tracked, but apparently Air One loads luggage in their planes without telling anything to anybody, and without any trace of this in the system. Anyway... since no one was able to tell us when the bag would arrive, and not wanting to wait any longer in Palermo airport (not the nicest place in Sicily), we drove back to Marsala. These were really wasted hours.

The next morning, a bit worried because we were leaving Marsala that day, and not wanting to have Air One send the bag to our hotel in Agrigento (we were thinking that if they are unable to load a bag on a plane, these idiots would probably be unable to load it on a truck too...), we finally got the expected phone call, this time not from the dumbasses at the call center, but from the nice guy at the lost and found office. Even nicer since he was still shaking from my scolding him the previous day (I know, it was not really his fault, it was in fact Air One's fault, but sometimes you just have to unload... retrospectively I am not really sorry).

But wait, the story is not finished! When I finally got my bag back, I immediately noticed that it was damaged: the telescopic handle you use to roll the bag was missing entirely. So more paperwork to get a damage report, and the promise that our bag would be repaired or exchanged for free, but only if we would report within 7 days in a prescribed luggage shop in Palermo, Trapani or Catania. Talk about bad service! So after going out of the airport, we decided to solve the matter immediately, and instead of driving to Agrigento at once, we drove to Palermo. And since this is Sicily, the land where time stops between noon and 4PM, and since it was a Monday (shops are closed on Monday mornings), we had to patiently kill time until 4, visiting a museum, strolling the small market streets, drinking lemonade (yummy), etc... until finally the shop opened.

OK, it's not a bad way to spend the day, and eventually the very nice people at the 'Quattrocchi' luggage shop were able to repair our bag in 5 minutes (thanks Samsonite for making such good bags), so all in all, this bad start ended well, and we were able to finally take the road to Agrigento.

So, the rant is out now, and I can go back to normal programming, i.e. telling you about our 2 wonderful days in Marsala. Stay tuned!!