Why do today what you can do in a week with a five day stopover in rome?
So one of my friends was coming back to Israel after Passover break, and failed to consider the fact that in Israel, when there is a strike, as in now, everything closes down. Government offices, Garbage pickup, Fire department, THE AIRPORT. SO Alitalia, that wonderfully nice airline, decides that despite the fact that Ben-Gurion Airport was closed, decided to start the flight through Rome to Israel. The plane got to Rome last Wednesday. He got here this morning.
In any case, it is possible based on my limited knowledge that El-Italia is the second worst airline in existance. (Lot Polish Air, #1 in suckiness.) After stranding an airplane worth of people in a foreign country, very few of whom speak the language (for some reason, lots of Israelis were on this flight to Israel,) they refused to find them a place to stay for most of a week, since the airline decided the flight had to leave despite the fact that the destination airport was closed. This, of course, leads to a multiligual shouting match, in Hebrew and Italian. No-one knew what was flying, but everyone was pissed off.
Then, of course, was the trouble with rescheduling the flight. It took them 3 days to decide what to do after the strike ended. When they rescheduled the flight, they listed it as leaving Rome at 20:45 and getting in to Israel at 17:30. One of the passengers complained to Customer service, where they calmly explained that 20:45 was 20:45 AM. I kid you not. It left at 7:30/19:30, they just had the times listed backwards.
In any case, stranded in Rome. First of all, being Jewish, if you are stranded in Rome for a week you need a place to stay for Shabbos. Before this necessity, however, bulletproof armor is suggested. There are more swastikas on the walls of the city than there are new yorkers in NYC. There also isn't so much to do if you don't like staring at the old buildings that you know almost nothing about without a tour guide.
To make a long story short, he spent a miserable week there, and learned an invaluable lesson. If anybody knows what it is, he'd be happy to hear.