Our flight arrived at 6:30 local time. It took about an hour to get through customs and collect baggage, then someone from the hotel met us at the airport for the 15 minute drive to Appia Hotel. His English was pretty good and we had a pleasant ride. He told us that we would be able to get in to our room right away and we were very happy about that.
He was wrong. When we went to check in we were told that all rooms were full and it would be 2:00 before we could get in. Drat! We were able to go up to the 4th floor and have breakfast...for and additional $15 per person. It was very nice and they had wifi, so we caught up on emails, etc. Then we decided to take a walk and kill some of the five hours before we could get in to our room. The streets are crazy and we were tired, so we were very careful to take photos every time we went on a new street. We wanted to be able to find our way back.
The walk was great, first to the pedestrian bridge, then through old cobblestone streets to the famous astronomical clock. We sat at an outdoor cafe and had cappuccino and watched the clock go off at 10:00. After that we slowly walked back towards the hotel, hoping that the room might be ready early.
We got back about 11:15 and the woman behind the desk told us that the room was ready! So we were able to sleep for an hour and a half and then get a shower.