Travelling with babies & toddlers

We did a lot of long distance traveling during the one week in Italy, e.g. the 3-hour train rides from Milan to Venice, from Venice to Florence, 3-hour flights, shuttle busses, etc. Sophie was generally OK for the most part, and if you know her, that’s saying a lot. I brought 2 new activity/story books to entertain her, which worked for about one hour in total (which is quite good!) I think we have done enough traveling with her to dispense a few bits of tips:

• The best time to travel with young children is when they are between 6-12 months old. At that age, their diet is straightforward (milk), they nap more, they are lighter to carry (if, like me, you have to strap them on your back while on the move), and they do not issue their own demands (“I want that!”, “Sophie do it!”, “No, don’t touch!”)
  


• It is easier to travel when they are not yet walking. You do not have to run after them or keep issuing orders to “Be careful!”, “Don’t go there!”, “Sit properly!” etc
  


• Bring lots of baby wipes to clean grubby fingers that will impress archaeologists for finding undiscovered secret nooks and crannies of crumbling century-old buildings.
  


• Take the train instead of the bus whenever possible on long journeys because the kids can at least walk about and explore when they get restless (which they will)
  


• Bring new toys to distract them from the monotony and lethargy and keep them occupied for 17 minutes.
  


• If your child is a fussy eater, bring ALL the food from home that had previously attracted her interest, even if only for a minute. We filled one medium-sized camping backpack with all of Sophie’s biscuits, Kit Kat, fruits, and snacks. I’m glad we did, even with the extra weight and work. She wasn’t interested in all of them but having them with me makes me less stressed about finding food for her…. OK, I lied. I was still stressed about finding decent food for her.
  


• Sleep for as long as you can afford; if you cannot afford more than 8 hours, cancel that morning excursion! The only reason I survived one week on the go with Sophie is because we slept at least 9 hours every night, much more than we ever get at home. It is quite uncharacteristic of us to sleep that much while we are on a trip, but it really helped to maintain the energy I need to run after, carry, discipline, and play with her AND enjoy the place.
  
  
  

  No, this is not one of those artsy, posed photos. It is just Sophie throwing a tantrum, refusing to follow me closely at the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. She stood firm, and clung on to the warning post for a good 5 minutes while I threatened to walk away.
  

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the Italians really, really, really love children. Everywhere we went, all sorts of people (gruff burly men, old hobbling withered women) will stop to admire them and pay you compliments (I assume they are compliments since I do not understand Italian but they are smiling so it must be good).

When we were in a restaurant in Venice, a 40-ish gentlemen stopped by our table to coo at Sophie. Later when she got tired and grumpy and exercised her super powerful lungs, the same gentlemen popped out of the restaurant and bought her a small toy to cheer her up. !!!! We were so paisay (Chinese dialect for embarrassed) and to borrow an English term, gobsmacked. At the coffee merchant’s in Lucca, the proprietor gave Sophie sweets from amongst her goods for sale, beaming with adoration. On the Venice-Florence train, the drop-dead gorgeous Italian high school girl sitting across the aisle from us offered to give Sophie her writing materials to play (or maybe it was to shut her up so that she can study in peace?). The middle-aged waitress at the posh wine bar in Lucca happily put out a cushion for Sophie to prop her up on the chair, and offered her little treats. In London, we would not even think of going to a restaurant unless they have put up a 5-foot sign saying that they are baby-friendly.

Despite this love for children, the birth rate for Italy is apparently at an all-time low. Is that why they love children? Or maybe they don’t see many Chinese babies who can bawl as loud as Sophie?