"Thank God You are In Italy"

We all arrived safetly in Italy, not without a few problems (or bumps) along the way. Oliver and I flew on Lufthansa (connecting in Munich) while Reed flew Air Iberia (connecting in Madrid). Reed never wants to fly through Madrid or on Air Iberia again! My flight from Munich to Milan was actually operated by Air Dolomites an Italian airline. We boarded a bus at the gate to take us to the plane. As we approached the plane, I could see Oliver's massive crate and that they were unscrewing the bolts of his crate. Turns out his crate was too large to fit inside the opening to the hold (the pressurized compartment he flew in) so they needed to take the crate apart, take Oliver out, put the crate in the hold, then put Oliver back in! They needed my help to do all of this but for the most part everyone was helpful. The same thing had to be done in Milan. Once we gathered Oliver at the large baggage claim we were talking to one of the men that had helped me out at the plane. He said "thank god you were in Italy" because what they had done was against all security measures i.e. having me be so close to the plane. After that, we walked right out of the airport, no one looked at any of Oliver's papers, our passports, or anything. It was like we were walking out of the Charlottesville airport! On to Parma!