Our flights home were full of surprises.  We left Rome on Tuesday, August 11, and made it back to Detroit on Wednesday, August 12, 2015.

We took the subway from Barberini to Termini, then we took the Leonardo Express train (14 euros, $15.40) from Termini to Fiumicino Airport, then we took the shuttle bus to Terminal 5.  I got one of the shocks of my life when we were upgraded to business class because our US Airways flight was oversold!  We were supposed to fly via Charlotte, North Carolina, but we found out when we arrived that our flights had been changed to go through Philadelphia.  We even got passes to the nice airline lounge with free snacks!  Here I am in my amazing lay-flat-bed seat with tons of leg room.  I am showing off my take-home amenity kit, too.
I will never get to fly business-class again (round-trip ticket estimated to be at least $2500), so I made the most of it.  Here was my welcome aboard drink: blood orange juice! We then got a menu of the food for the entire flight.  Four entree choices for the main meal!  WOW!  (I last recall a menu on our flight back from Togo to Paris -->  Zebu stew!)
Hot towel to refresh us before eating A classier version of the pre-meal drink: Diet Sierra Mist in a real glass plus cashews and mixed nuts to snack on while waiting for our first course.
The starter of our business-class meal was prosciutto with melon and mozzarella.  The salad was spinach and frisee with strawberries, walnuts, and blue cheese, with choice of dressing.  (I got the lime yogurt dressing rather than the balsamic vinaigrette, but the lime yogurt dressing had no flavor.)  Bread and butter were also served.  Everything was delicious, especially the prosciutto and melon (which we had seen people eating for the last several days in Italy but had not tried). My mother and I both chose the same main course: beef tenderloin (so good!) with peppercorn sauce (not much flavor), potato croquettes (dense and not very flavorful; better when dipped in the sauce), and creamed spinach with carrots (good--my first time having creamed spinach!).  By this time, I was pretty full.  (Our other entree choices were chicken breast, cod, or pasta.)
Again, for dessert, we had three choices: cheese plate, cannoli, or sundae.  I chose the sundae.  They had glasses filled with Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream, then they topped it with your choice of toppings: hot fudge, butterscotch, strawberry, whipped cream, and nuts.  I got the strawberry, whipped cream, and nuts.  Amazingly good!  What a meal! About an hour and a half before landing, we got our light meal.  We both chose the croque monsieur (hot ham-and-cheese sandwich) with Greek salad and cookies.  (The other choice was Thai beef salad).
   
We got to Philadelphia, and storms were around.  We landed, but lots of flights were delayed, and some were even cancelled.  Our flight was delayed an hour and a half.  (We were supposed to leave for Detroit at 9 pm but left after 10:30 pm.)  We got back to Detroit after 12:30 am.  It was a great trip!