We made it!  Our home away from home…

If you read my recent post, “Italy, Here We Come (Part 2)” you might be wondering how our trip went.  And if you haven’t I can sum it up for you in this post: Just imagine, FOUR flights, across the ocean, with TWO kids!  (You might want to read that last post now to get the full effect of this one).

The title of this post pretty much sums up how I felt our trip panned out!  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE everything about traveling, the preparation, the packing, the hustle and bustle of the airports, (aka. people watching), but it’s an entirely different experience with children.  Instead of calmly packing for one, I was packing for four (ONE day before we left), repeatedly estimating the amount of diapers, pull-ups, individually packaged portions of formula, toys, wipes, napkins, spoons, bibs, tubes of sanitizer (the list goes on) I would need for the trip.

On a side note, I think I did a pretty good job at packing for as long as we’re going to be away.  (And my husband thinks I don’t know how to downsize!) 

So, back to the story!  The kids were in great spirits on the first flight…and so were we when they both passed out even before the plane took off AND slept through the entire flight!

Here’s my son finally getting to see a plane up close and personal after months and months of “airplane talk!”

Now here’s where the drama starts:

We were held up for TWO hours in (on the tarmac) in Toronto due to “technical problems” (just what we needed to hear!).  It goes without saying that most of our energy was dispensed in that time period trying to entertain the kids.  (Thank goodness for that one stewardess who had the brilliant idea to give my son a banana (of all things) NOT knowing how much he loves food.  Let’s just say he ended up falling asleep with said banana in hand…no blankie, no cuddles…a BANANA!

Here’s the even funner part: Landed at London Heathrow (two hours late).

The roller coaster ride begins!  

Missed flight to Milan.  Got booked for the next flight out (only 45 min from when we arrived at Heathrow). Changed both diapers (good thing we decided that our potty trained son should wear pull-ups for the trip). Ran like *%^$ to get through customs. Sped-fed my son some (not-so tasty) pizza before boarding.

Now here’s the BEST part:

Arrive in Milan with only 45 min until the next flight.  We couldn’t pass through security (even though we only had 10 minutes until our gate was closing) because the security officer said “I can’t let you cut the line.  You’ll have to ask ALL the people ahead of you in line yourself!” (Insert absurd amount of cussing in Italian and English on my part!)  Needless to say, it worked!  The line parted like the Red Sea! 😉

Another “incident” worth mentioning: There were NO elevators anywhere!  This was particularly worrisome when I halted (after running for about 10 minutes with two bags and my son in the stroller) at the TWO flights of stairs below me.  I was SO desperate that I actually contemplated giving my son his first (impromptu) roller coaster ride myself…that is, until someone FINALLY stopped to offer help!

I could go on about a few other incidences but I think you get the picture!  For the most part the kids were true champs!  My daughter’s main form of entertainment was sleep and hanging out in our arms while my son played with his sticker books and was (easily) distracted by snacks!

At the end of the day we knew the stress and exhaustion of the trip was SO worth it when we saw the look on nonno’s face the moment he greeted his new granddaughter…for the FIRST time!

Priceless! 😉