Rome via NYC

On this trip, I went with family on a mission to see the Vatican. Not being particularly religious, I was interested in seeing the other sights in Italy but can appreciate the care and affluence the Roman Catholic Church possessed. I flew on United Airlines with a pit stop in Newark. For this particular trip, weather being a notorious and fickle factor I opted to do red eye flights. I had a 10 hour layover and planned to visit NYC showing my parents the 10 minute tour. J
On the flight to Newark, I was able to get upgraded for everyone in my flight for free. Well, not actually free. United has a policy now that if you want to upgrade using miles or certificates and the itinerary includes an international leg, the miles/certificates are considered unused if you don’t make the international segment. At the time of boarding, I wasn’t able to confirm the international portion but the domestic leg was available.
I took the NJ transit to Penn Station and grabbed a quick breakfast at Café CD on 148 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016. I had wanted to get to my typical bagel shop but time and distance dictated staying close to the area.  A quick service restaurant, I was able to get my NY bagel fix on.  We wandered over to the Empire State Building after breakfast to check out the city views.

Unfortunately, the East Coast was bombarded with rain and the view from the top of the Empire State Building was very cloudy. Visibility was poor but it was still impressive to see the NYC skyline.
I realized as I left the Empire State Building I had left an essential item for the Italy trip – my GPS! I had purchased the Italy map from Garmin and I was bummed to have left this item behind. I couldn’t magically get my GPS to me so I visited the Staples store next door and picked one up. I would have to later buy another copy of the Italy map from Garmin once in Italy.
With time running short, we went to Vezzo restaurant around the corner to have NY pizza. I know NYC is known for thin crust but this particular restaurant was really thin…almost cracker like. Unfortunately, this will be the best pizza eaten on this trip. The service was good even though the food order was messed up as well as the billing. I would still come back if I could.
 
No first time visit (for the guests) would be complete without seeing Times Square. We grabbed a taxi and made a slight detour through Times Square on the way back to Newark Airport. I wouldn’t recommend taking a taxi to Newark as the tunnel was partially blocked due to a car accident and it took about 90 minutes to get to the airport.

Went through security and I was pleasantly surprised that the TSA Precheck processes now include letting passengers with international itineraries through the lanes. This is a new process and I was happy to use the lane bypassing most of the security lines. While on the plane, I was upgraded at the last minute to Business class. My entire party eventually was as well right before we took off for Rome. All in all, not a bad start to the trip to Rome.

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