Today was a 23 hour travel day to start off our month-long road trip through Italy! Our house to SeaTac, SeaTac to London, London to Nice, France.
It all started off great (see our happy faces on the curb at the airport as we said ‘see you in 2 weeks!’ to my mom as she dropped us off). Then, disaster struck.
As we waited in line to get our boarding passes, I counted the passports. Benjamin’s, check. Baby’s, check. Mine, 🫣. Instantly, I realize I must have left it on the scanner when I was making copies of each of our passports. I thought for sure I had them because I had seen them in my purse before we left, but I hadn’t counted them… I’m sure the guy in front of us in line was entertained listening to us figure out what to do. I called my mom as she was leaving the airport, and she had the idea to send my brother to pick up my passport at the house and then meet her back in Everett and both of them come back down to SeaTac to try to save time with carpool lanes.
Meanwhile, Benjamin and I made a plan. He and baby would go through security and wait for me at the gate, and I would stay behind to wait for my passport and hope I could make it in time. The biggest problem was the ticket counter wouldn’t accept any form of copy or picture as a substitute for my passport, and they would close the counter before my mom and brother would be arriving. So I just had to hope that the little digital kiosk would give me a boarding pass, and then of course hope that I could make it to the plane before they closed the gate.
Good news is, we had arrived at the airport 3 hours early. Bad news, with traffic times ticking up by the minute, it took 2.5 hours to get my passport. The kiosk didn’t work, but it did give me a little slip of paper that made me think it had worked. I sprinted through security. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner, but I could just get my boarding pass AT the gate as long as TSA let me through without a boarding pass. And as long as I made it in time…
With the kindness of several strangers and the benefit of a slight delay of the flight, I MADE IT! 🎉🥳
Luckily, the rest of the day was so uneventful! Flying with a 17-month-old is way different than flying with an 11-month-old, but she did so well. The seat-extender hammock is a little too small now for her to stretch out and fall asleep, so she struggled for a while to find a comfortable spot (especially since she’s a stomach sleeper) but she did eventually fall asleep with her head pressed against my thigh and feet resting on Benjamin’s leg. She ended up sleeping 4.5 hours on the 8.5 hour flight.
Here’s the thing about traveling with a little one: SKIP THE LINES! In most airports, they’ll seek out families with children under 3 and pull you out of the endless line to move you up to the front. We even watched as the airport staff rejected a desperate couple (without kids) who said their flight was leaving in 20 minutes. They had to stay in the zigzagging line while we went on ahead. I felt bad (having JUST been in that situation), but there’s not much I could do under the mercy of the airport staff.
Our 2.5 hour layover in London was delightful—we spent it in a lounge!! We recently got the CapitalOne Venture X card which gives free access to lots of lounges around the world. I felt so bougie but it was so wonderful! Endless coffee, refilling my water bottle with lots of ice, free food, comfy chairs. I’m sold! Especially with a toddler, it was a dream.
Anyway, our last flight from London to Nice went great as well and then we took the train to our AieBnb, got some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had, and headed to bed!
Day 3 we will be traveling from France to Italy.
Sept 9: Arrive in Nice 6:30pm
*****
Follow along for our 1-month itinerary traveling Italy with a 1-year-old toddler! We’ll share our experience traveling with an 18-month-old and all our favorite towns, restaurants, and activities on an Italian road trip! Our destinations include: Cinque Terre, La Spezia, Zoagli, Monterosso, Vernazza, Manarola, Riomaggiore, Tuscany, Florence, San Gimignano, Lazio, Montepulciano, Pienza, Lucca, Rome, Vatican City, San Gimignano, Amalfi Coast, Sorrento, Vietri Sul Mare, Maori, Puglia, Lecce, Gallipoli, Otranto, Monopoli, Ostuni, Nice, France, Monaco
