Thanks to Brexit I went to Texas...

Exactly one year ago I was flying from Italy to S. Antonio, Texas via Frankfurt and Washington DC... and all this thanks to Brexit. How so ?|

I have a little obsession for a little unusual place in the UK, a place that I want to visit sometime in the future, this place being the Isles of Scilly . In June 2023 on a lazy Sunday afternoon I was just thinking about that place and realized that, after Brexit, I, as an Italian, need a passport to go there! So I got my expired passport and started the boring process to renew it.

To renew it in Italy you need to book (online) an appointment to a Commissariato / Questura  (basically a  Police station, different  names depending on its size)  bring with you old passport, a couple of recent pics, receipt of two separate state tax/tariff, your id and so on. I got my appointment quite fast, booked in June for... September 8 (sometimes you wait a year or more). Ok, I'll wait September, I'm not in a rush.

In July a couple friends announced they were going... to Texas, in mid October to... watch the 14 October annular eclipse and planning / scouting for the April 2024 total eclipse. They asked around if anyone else wanted to go with them. I said "I do!" as the budget for this trip was way lower than the one for the total one. So in September 8 when i went to the Commissariato I brought with me my flight tickets to ask for an "expedite" process as I had to fly out on October 12.  Thanks to that I had my new shining passport on October 8... Just in time to apply for my ESTA.

Having a flight early in the morning (something like 9 am) I decided not to sleep the night before as I had to get into my car a little past 4:30 am and again that was a lucky choice, At around 2 am I was trying to add the last details to my (already approved) ESTA, details like where I would be staying but I wasn't successful and expertly cursed the website . So I sent a worried message to the friend that was in charge of booking the hotels/airbnb... he should have been sleeping as he had another, later flight but he was suffering from insomnia and answered me at 3 am with full details. Ddetails that I was asked to provide the following morning in Frankfurt by USA security desk  before/for boarding the USA bound flight.

All in all.. as I said i went to Texas thanks to Brexit.