CIAAAAO.

We’ve been back from Italy for over 3 months now, and Henrik still says bye to people this way. Another Italian word he learned during our trip is “gelato”. Oh he learned that one REAL quick. Now at home, he stands in front of our freezer drawer, yanks on the handle and yells “ja-ad-oh” - his rendition of the word “gelato” until he gets what he wants. The boy catches on quick.

I wanna say he’s a natural born traveller, since both his father and myself are big on travel, and for a baby, I suppose he is. Did I expect him to happily sit on a plane for 10+ hours in silence and then be dragged all over Italy in the scorching summer heat without so much as a peep? Kinda? But that most definitely did not happen. SHOCKER. In all honesty though, I think we’re pretty lucky to have a happy and easy-going baby who allowed us to enjoy adventures through Italy, despite only having 3 things that really piqued his interest: gelato, horsies, and birdies. Although I guess his most favourite interest during our trip was Yeye - my father, his grandfather. They’re inseparable and legit BFFs and I’m so beyond grateful he joined us on our trip. It wasn’t always the plan for my dad to join, but he’d been itching to get out after the whole pandemic situation, and although this was technically our honeymoon, it was such a blessing to have him with us. Idk if you know, but 18 month old toddlers are headstrong, stubborn, and it’s nearly impossible to negotiate with them. So having Henrik outnumbered was a real help. Temper tantrums at the dinner table were no match for 3 grown adults. LOL JK. We held on by a thread sometimes, literally just by playing hot potato with Henrik (Henrik being the potato) at dinner to keep him distracted while we scarfed down our food, but that’s the life of travelling with a child.

Travelling with a child is SO different from travelling without one, and it was this trip to Italy that really opened our eyes to that. It wasn’t our first family trip, but it was our first big one. We spent a week in Florida when Henrik was 11 months old, but we had so much freedom to roam around because Henrik was just a sack of potatoes that didn’t move around much and slept in his stroller for hours on end. Travelling through Europe with a toddler who has a mind of his own is VERY different. And I totally get that every baby/toddler/child is different, so the advice I’m about to lay out for you may not actually work for you and your family, it’s just what worked for us.

Flight:

Bring snacks. Lots of ‘em. And books. And toys. And the iPad. I’m writing this months after our trip and now Henrik’s almost 2. At this age, he could sit in front of the iPad and watch Pixar’s Cars 1, 2 and 3 on repeat for 6 days straight without moving. But a few months ago, his attention span for movies and TV was like 20 minutes. So even though we brought the iPad and distracted Henrik with it for a little bit at a time, he was more interested in playing with his toys and looking at his books. Since being home from our trip to Italy, I’ve been targeted by social media ads for “busy toys”, which would have been super helpful on our flights. Here are some items currently in my cart for our next flight: Busy board, Mess-free Colouring Book, Snack Spinner, Suction Cup Spinners, Reusable Sticker Kits, Bubble Fidget Toys, Cube Toy.

Stroller:

Bring an umbrella stroller and leave your big fancy one at home. We learned this lesson the hard way during our trip to Florida actually. The airline broke our fancy Uppababy stroller and it was a headache to jump through hoops to be compensated for it, but that’s only the half of it. In Italy, the streets are mostly cobblestone, they’re narrow, and there are people EVERYWHERE. Manoeuvring around with a big stroller just sounds like a recipe for a meltdown (for you, not your baby). A little umbrella stroller is easier to push through crowded spaces and will just be easier to handle. I’d also suggest finding one with a storage compartment, here’s a link to the one we used and really liked.

Milk:

At this point, we had already started Henrik on homogenised milk at home, so when we travelled through Italy, it was easy to find “latte intero” or “whole milk” for him. The milk we have at home has a long shelf life, but the ones we found in Italy are fresh with a shorter shelf life. It took Henrik a couple days to get used to the taste, but once he was on it, we didn’t have any issues. We just made sure he hydrated lots and consumed enough other foods to substitute when he didn’t drink enough milk the first couple of days. One thing we found a bit weird is that some of their milk comes in boxes and are stored unrefrigerated on the shelves. We typically aimed for the ones stored in fridges, but were in a pickle once or twice so opted for the shelf milk, which Henrik didn’t mind.

Food:

We brought loads of snacks for Henrik - puree pouches, puffs, mumums, goldfish - all snacks that were familiar to him that we could feed him on-the-go if we needed. Italy obviously has no shortage of food, but we wanted to bring his own snacks for peace-of-mind in case he decided to be a picky eater. Also, dried apricots. Because we all get a little stuck during travels (if you know what I mean), and babies are no different. Help the kid out why don’t ya.

Diapers:

Man oh man babies need SO. MUCH. STUFF. And diapers take up a ridiculous amount of room in luggage. We brought a half pack of diapers to tie us over until we could buy some in Italy, and easily found Pampers brand diapers in most of the grocery/convenience stores. Most of the baby wipes we bought there though were heavily scented - like your grandmother’s bathroom potpourri. The ones we really liked are the “Water Wipes” brand since they’re unscented.

Highchair/Booster Seat:

Leave them at home! Every restaurant has highchairs available.

Clothes:

One entire outfit of Henrik’s folds up the same size as a pair of my socks, they’re literally so friggin tiny, so I brought enough clothes for Henrik for every day we were away (plus extra), even though the Airbnbs we booked all had laundry machines. Cus he’s gotta look fly travelling around Italy obviously.

Medication:

I feel like this is an obvious one, but we brought everything. Henrik doesn’t take medication regularly, but we brought his prescription eczema cream in case of a flare up, along with the usual baby Tylenol, baby Advil, etc.

Stroller fan:

I feel like we wouldn’t have survived without this, but you may not need one depending on the time of year you travel. We went in September, which was supposed to be a cooler temp, but it really was NOT. It was pushing 40C on some days, so the fan we attached to H’s stroller came in handy. Here’s the one we have and love.

K that’s all for now. If you have any recos for us and our future travels, drop ‘em down below. K thx bye.