En route to Nice

I had some points so tonight I'm staying in an (air-conditioned!) Hilton Garden Inn at the Rome Airport to simplify my 9AM departure. To get to the airport there is a bus and the "Leonardo Express" train. I WAS looking for the bus,but by the time I got to a bus station office, the woman told me it was for the Ciampino airport! So I gave up and took the train...what is 6 euros(difference betw bus and train) when you are tromping around a crowded train station with a backpack (weighing who knows how much?) and pulling a little "wheelie". I'm STILL preparing for my Ryanair flights that will be very strict about checked (15kg) and ONE only unchecked luggage (10kg).Anyhow...made it.
On the train I finished a book I'd brought with me and left it on the train (to lighten my load) along with my straw hat! hadn't gotten too far before I realized that I had left my hat on the train, so I went charging back for it. (Tough to explain to the conductor that I'd left my hat on the train! Have to learn Italian word for hat....) As I turned to leave (with visions of my hat going back to the train station), a young Austrian couple passed me, and she handed me my hat and book!"I said to my man,my husband,maybe we can find her!",she said.
Earlier in the day, Gino at Femme Sistina, Salon de Coiffure/boutique, at the top of the Spanish Steps had cut my hair. It's pretty short, but two months is a long time, and I figured I should get it cut before I leave Rome. Every time I've been across the Steps,I went down, but I was late, and a bit twisted around (AKA lost?), so to keep from being any later, I walked UP THE SPANISH STEPS. And now I can report that there are 132 steps,which doesn't count the "landing" steps....That equals ten stories if 13 steps is the standard "set of stairs"!
As a side note, it turns out that Angela and her family never stayed at my house,but she just told me a few days ago! And then it took me two days to remember my (now pretty dead I'm sure!) houseplants. Luckily my orchids are vacationing at Jane's in Cotuit on the harbor (no pressure,Jane!); a lot of my other houseplants are at my sister Helens'. (Jane HATES taking care of plants,so I asked if my orchids could sit on her wonderful deck while I'm away, when I saw what amazing success she had had with an orchid last summer-TONS of buds!)
Tomorrow I'm going to meet Gloria, who lives in Italy and owns this apartment in Nice that she rents to students.(She is one of my Facebook friends,if you care to see her on FB!?) I "met" her,when I emailed her about a possible swap for her place in Genoa on the exchange site. So we've been in touch for over a year.She bought a short sale condo on the beach in Miami last winter, and she emailed me about that, etc....So it will be interesting how this visit goes. Then on August 31st, I'll be couch surfing....