Day 1: Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and More- Not Necessarily in that Order

Today another adventure begins! Honestly, everyday is an adventure. However, today begins one that should be particularly memorable.
Left only 30 minutes late for the 4-hour drive to Ft. Lauderdale Airport. We picked up the rental car last night, so that helped. Had an uneventful drive, so that’s great. We got gas for the rental car and brought the Sunpass, so avoided any potential problems there ;)
We took a shuttle bus to our terminal and went quickly through check-in and security. We had our carryon bags weighed at the counter for check in. Luckily they all came in under the 22lb. weight limit. This was the first time that has happened. We have never flown out of FLL before and we’re glad things went quickly since we only arrived 2 hours early for our flight instead of 3 like we were planning. The gate was super close to security, so we had 45 minutes to an hour in the airport before boarding. We snagged a seat at the charging table and charged devices.
Norwegian’s Dreamliner is such a nice, big plane. It was quite empty so we had lots of space. Still, trying to sleep on a plane, even with an entire bench row isn’t easy or comfortable.
We unexpectedly had to go through customs at the layover in Paris. We have a French stamp in our passport books.
The layover was okay, long, but not too long. Quick flight to Rome. Another hour of sleep. Up to 3 hours I think in the past 30+ hours. We had a crap time trying to get to our rental in Rome because it took us a long time to figure out the train system. It took almost 4 hours to make what should have been a 45 minute trip. Grr. We did save 20 euro though by taking the local train.
After 2 trains and 2 easy to navigate underground trips and a short walk we got to our place. Good, cheapish, pretty clean. Hot water. Full kitchen. Very nice owner who gave us the keys and left us to it.
We were all starving and tried to go to a vegan restaurant/grocery store. It was closed due to the state holiday. However, on the walk home we passed a grocery store and bought all kinds of randomness, which we will blame on lack of sleep and extreme hunger.
And what do you know... we made a dinner of crusty bread, organic wine, fresh tomatoes, garlic, and kale, and vegan crochettes, which we started at 9:15pm at night. Dessert was vegan gelato. We made it.