I got a great $899 round-trip fare to Milan, Italy, but it required an 8-hour layover in Miami.  I am from Miami, and my mother enjoys going back to visit, so we rented a car for our layover and headed out to the Everglades. We got to Miami an 9 am, took the MIA Mover to the airport rental car center, and headed out by 10 am!
We stopped at Publix on Tamiami Trail (to get water) and the nearby Burger King to get lunch before heading to the Everglades.	We got a great deal on a rental car (through AAA) at the airport from Dollar Rent A Car for about $30 (including tax and tolls).
We drove out to the Shark Valley entrance to Everglades National Park.  My mother has a senior National Park pass, so that covered our entrance fee.	We rented bikes for an hour ($8.49 per bike per hour).  So fun!
It was very warm and sunny.  We both put on sunscreen and brought 1.5 L of water each, but I forgot a hat!	We saw pond apples by the side of the trail.
We also got to see a soft-shell turtle along the trail!	We saw three alligators along the way: one moving violently in the water (no photo), one in the water (above--looked like a submerged tire!0, and one across the trail (scary--no photo).
We also saw an anhinga in a tree as we returned to the visitor center.	It was 41 °C (205-206 °C) inside our rental car when we returned from biking.
After the biking, we drove back to the airport to await our 5:45 pm flight to Milan.  Frosties from Wendy's at the airport helped us pass the time!
We got seats next to each other for the more than 9 hour flight!	Dinner was chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad with sliced tomato, roll with butter, crackers with cheese, snickerdoodle cookie, and bottle of water.
Breakfast was a croissant with butter and strawberry jam, "blueberry" yogurt (with no blueberry flavor at all), and orange juice.	We got a nice view of the Alps as we neared Milan!