Italy or Bust

We are back from our FABULOUS trip to Italy!! It was a wonderful experience. . . once we got there. We had just a few bumps in the road (or air) to get there. Our plan was to get up Friday morning (the 18th) and leave for the airport at 9:00. Our flight was at 12:30 to Chicago. We had a three hour layover in Chicago and then were to fly out to Rome. We would arrive in Rome Saturday morning at 9:00 where my parents would pick us up with a rented van for all of our suitcases, strollers, etc. We would then leave Rome, drive the countryside, stop in Sienna and stay the night in Florence. On Sunday morning, we would head over to Pisa to tour the town for the day. Dad would then turn the car in on Monday morning.

The following is what really happened. I know that you will read this and think that there is no way that all of this happened, but it really did! Here's the story:
Friday morning, we got up, got packed and were about to head out when Lauren started screaming. Lauren NEVER cries, so we ran into the room. She had been happily playing on her mat when Jackson fell onto her head with the car seat that was in the room. Poor baby had a bump on her head. Then we spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out if it was bad enough to take her to the doctor on the way to the airport. Lauren quieted down and acted like herself, so I decided that she was fine. (Little did we know that this would be a precursor to the day.)

Off we went to the airport. When we arrived at the airport, we got in line for international travel. After finally getting to the front of the line, we found out that we had to pay a tax for Lauren since we were flying international. Who knew!?! 45 minutes later, the American Airlines person FINALLY figured out how to enter her and gave us the total that we owed. The people behind us were not amused. We were finally ready to go! Turn in our suitcases, go through security, and head to the gate. Flight delayed 30 minutes -- bad weather in Chicago. Gate change. Flight delayed an hour. Yikes, that leaves us with only 2 hours layover. That's ok, we can make it. Flight delayed again. Another gate change. We started sweating it. Finally, we were ready to get on the plane. The plane takes off. We are going to cut it close on our layover, but we can make it. Then we landed -- in Madison, Wisconsin!!! YIKES! The plane needed to refuel. At that point, we knew that we missed our flight to Rome. Finally, we take off and land in Chicago at 9:00 pm. Now what?? We stand in line at American Airlines, and I use my cell phone to call. I get through! We have a plan -- the ONLY plan. We will leave Chicago on Saturday at 5:00 PM, head to Boston, have only 1 hour (not much time) before catching a plane to London, then London to Rome. We will arrive in Rome Sunday afternoon at 4:00. (We just laughed! I mean, we were nervous about the two flights for a total of 14 hours. Now we will travel for THREE DAYS with two small children!) So far, Thomas and I are holding it together and the kids were ROCK STARS! We couldn't believe that we would lose two days of Italy, but what do you do? So Thomas got us a hotel room. We went to get our luggage. No luggage. No car seats. We are going to have to take a cab to the hotel and no car seats. If you know me, I am a fanatic about car seats. That is when I started crying to the American Airlines lady. I said, "I just want my car seats for my babies". They rushed to the back and brought out two car seats and handed them to me -- without taking my name or anything! Off we went to the hotel. We check our diaper situation. I had 6 more diapers. Mom had bought diapers for Italy. Six diapers won't make it until Sunday night. Thomas heads to the store. We order room service for breakfast -- what a treat for us and Jackson. Jackson was pumped to be in a hotel. What a trooper he was!

Saturday -- we hung out at the hotel until 1:00 and head to the airport. More standing in line to get tickets. ANOTHER 45 minutes at the counter because of Lauren. They don't know how to tag an infant to my ticket. Off to our gate. Flight delayed 30 minutes. Oh no! That leaves us with a 30 minute layover to catch the flight to London. Finally, we load the plane. We may just make it! We land in Boston. Our flight to London was boarding just across the room. We walk off the Boston flight and STRAIGHT onto the flight to London. We MADE IT!! We were home free!! The plane starts taxing down the runway and stops. The captain comes on and says, "we are having technical difficulties with the overhead reading lights and call buttons. We have called maintenance, and they are on there way to fix it. We will be delayed about an hour." That leaves us with a 2 hour layover. We can make it. The captain comes on again, "We are going to have to return to the terminal and get on another plane. They are unable to repair the problem and FAA will not let us fly without it working. It will take 1-2 hours to get the other plane loaded." Oh no! Back to the terminal we go. Finally, we can get on the plane. The plane takes off. Will we make it? Finally, we land. We have 25 minutes. Maybe we can make it! Rush off the plane. Have to wait and wait for our strollers. 20 minutes. Got the strollers. RUN, RUN, RUN through the airport with the strollers. Winding, winding, winding. Run, run, run! Round the corner. Eight minutes. . . Then we saw it. . . security. AUGHHHHH!!! I asked the security if we can possibly make it. They said, "nope, you have missed the flight". Back to the American Airlines counter. In line for a while. Finally, our turn! This time, it took 55 minutes at the counter. I'm able to help with how to add Lauren though. We have a choice. . . fly to Milan and then to Rome arriving at 4:00 or fly to Rome from London and arrive at 11:00. We decide to stay in London and not go through Milan (that's just one more flight to get messed up). While waiting for our flight, we walked around the airport. We couldn't believe that we were in London and had to be stuck in the airport!! I did have fish and chips for lunch! Time to board. Got on the plane and off we were to Rome!! YIPPEE!!

We land in Rome! No suitcases. Filing a report. No car seats anywhere. None to loan us. We went to meet Mama J and Papa J. They had to hang out in Rome for two days waiting for us to arrive. When we finally met up with them, Papa J opened the back end of the huge van to put our few carry ons (no big suitcases) and noticed that their suitcase, briefcase, and BOTH laptops were gone!! Someone had broken into the van! Heartbreaking. All of their Italy pictures -- gone. Mom's trip diary -- gone. Oh well. What can you do? So we head to Florence. Jackson in a seat belt. I put Lauren in my sling and put a seat belt around the both of us. Mom helped too. We were off for our 3 1/2 hour drive. We finally arrived in Florence at 5:00 AM.

Whew! We finally made it!! AND my kids were WONDERFUL throughout the whole ordeal. We kept telling Jackson we were having an adventure. They were perfect the entire trip getting to Italy. Thomas and I decided that we will never be nervous about traveling places with our kids. If we can spend 72 hours in the airport or on airplanes, we can do anything!!

I will post some pictures tomorrow.