Traveling With a Family of Five

I'm not sure what I expected traveling Italy with the kids would be like for our family. I figured it would be hard and wrangling and bickering about who got to go first and who would push the elevator button. I imagined fights, picking on each other, and endless requests for "iPad Time." That is not to say there has been none, but I am immensely impressed with the patience, stamina, and flexibility the kids have shown.

I'm most impressed with George and his stamina. He is only five and turns six next month. At home, he complains about having to walk anywhere. Alex and I had multiple discussions about whether we were bringing a stroller or not. I was staunchly anti-stroller, and Alex knows how necessary it can be when he refuses to walk and as an additional device to haul luggage. Ultimately, we decided we could not bring one more thing, and he would have to walk. And he has. He walks everywhere. He walks 6, 7 so far up to 9 miles a day. George has walked up the over 400 steps of the bell tower of the Florence Cathedral and back down. (Only falling and hurting himself once!) He has walked from our hotel to the Pitti Palace, through the Boboli Gardens, and back to the hotel. We only had to carry him a few hundred yards after he fell, skinning both knees and hands. George hurting himself is a daily occurrence.

While George is walking everywhere, he does refuse to carry absolutely any luggage.

We have had to have a pep talk and solidify a few things in the kids' minds. First, when we say move, move. When we say sit, sit. Getting on and off trains can be incredibly stressful, and sometimes the kids do not understand the motivation and necessity. Second, it's ok to be uncomfortable. I mentioned that George refuses to carry anything. Most of the time, it's a complaint that the backpack or some other bag is uncomfortable to wear, especially while traveling from one place to another. The message we are trying to instill in them is that we try to make them as comfortable as possible most of the time. However, it's ok to be uncomfortable and work hard to get us from one amazing place to the next. We told them all this while I had a 40lb bag strapped to my back, a 40lb bag strapped to my front, and a roller luggage bag in each hand, and Alex had two backpacks and a roller luggage bag in each hand. Let's hope the message starts to sink in.

We knew going into this trip that traveling with our family of 5 would be a bit more complicated than if we were only 4. It is much more expensive to buy five plane tickets, five meals, and five museum passes, and five train tickets than for 4. We quickly discovered that much of Italy and France don't have many/any family-sized rooms, and we would be required to purchase two rooms. Also, they will not allow you to have a cot or rollaway bed added to a room with four people. So two rooms it is. If we are lucky, sometimes they will be adjoining.

Some restaurants also seem to prejudice against a family of 5. We have been turned away twice from restaurants that had space and availability because their largest table size was for 4. Most restaurants have been more than able to accommodate us by pulling over an extra chair or pushing two tables together. The best places make us feel welcome and wanted, and there have been plenty of those.