Getting Around

For the most part, public transportation within the U.S. is pretty great, and surprisingly, so is most of Europe. In Italy, for instance, the train system is terrific, with your best bets being the high-speed ones (there are only two companies that own them: ItaliaRail and Trenitalia, both of which are pretty much identical). The regional trains will sometimes be necessary when venturing into the less-popular cities, but with the exception of looking less nice than their faster counterparts, they’re still effective. The benefit here is that you can leave your car seat at home and you really don’t miss much scenery because the trains often hug the coastline.

As you move farther away from the major cities and into the smaller towns, you’ll lose the trains and need to use buses, which – although not always punctual – typically get you where you need to go, as long as you’re not on a rigid schedule. If you feel more comfortable with a car because of the freedom it offers but worry about bringing your baby gear on your flights, consider renting equipment at your destination. In Italy, for instance, there’s a company called GoKid that brought an Inglesina car seat to the place where we were staying and then picked it up when we were finished with it. It seemed a lot more of a guarantee for us than keeping our fingers crossed that our rental car company would have one available when we arrived (which, sadly, is exactly what we were told). 

Things to Know About Europe Specifically

• There’s likely going to be something called a bread charge. It usually hovers around 2 euros a person, so if you don’t actually EAT bread, politely decline as soon as it’s brought out. 
• Wine is – believe it or not – cheaper than water in most European countries. I’m talking about 2 euros for a glass compared to 5 euros for a soda or small bottle of water. Maybe that’s why they always seem so happy…
• Don’t make the same mistake I did my first time in Europe. I saw fish on the menu, thought, “whoooa this is cheap!” and ordered an entree that came with potatoes and a vegetable for 12 euros. Fast-forward to bill time and I come to realize that you’re actually paying by the GRAM… so we quickly turned our econo-meal into a 150+ euro one, forcing my husband to run back to the hotel for extra cash while I prayed he didn’t just leave me there.
• Most European countries don’t really hold “we’re in a rush” to a very high standard, so your only real saving grace of traveling with kids may be that after a few screams and tantrums on their floor, they may want you out just as much as you do.
• We have allergies here, so doing whatever we can to avoid imminent death is always a high priority in our household. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I’m fluent in Italian, the concept of an allergy is pretty much lost on most Italians. Other European countries – like Spain, for instance – seem a lot more attune to it and I DO think allergy-awareness is becoming a bigger thing everywhere, which is good – but besides bringing along a translation of what you’re allergic to, use common sense and avoid things that don’t look safe, even if they say they are. (Case in point: chocolate. The odds of you actually finding chocolate without hazelnuts in it is next to zero, and I’ve yet to meet an Italian who doesn’t realize that it thus contains nuts…).

Ultimately, my best advice to anyone traveling with kids is to be flexible, bring lots of small toys, and pack a thermometer and Tylenol for if they get sick. Their naps will be a disaster, but they all somehow seem to have the ability to bounce back pretty well from a lack of sleep, and in most cases, the time difference will destroy any semblance of a sleep schedule anyway.