Roman Holiday

Jet lag sucks. 

Jet lag with 2 kids is a sick form of torture.

We recently returned from a 7-day Italian vacation, and I've been struggling to pick up the pieces of my life, but MAN was it worth it. Alex and I haven't been on a proper vacation (as in a no-work, child-free vacation) since Bobby was born, so this trip was well overdue. We are pretty seasoned, masochistic travelers, so we Alex decided to plan a trip with three connections. It ended up being an awfully dramatic travel. The plan was to travel from Florida to Houston, Houston to Munich, Munich to Rome, and then take a train from Rome to Montepulciano the following day. Why do I go along with these plans?

We had gotten settled into our big international flight from Houston to Munich, and I had taken a fat Ambien, whenever I stirred to a strange noise. We peered out the window and saw that our plane was dumping gas from the wing. 

Apparently there was a mechanical malfunction, and we had to dump gas and turn around--slightly terrifying. Then we had to run (I'm tripping balls from the sleeping pills that I had taken before) through the airport to try to get on a plane to London and get our luggage re-routed. That worked out just in the nick of time, not a moment to spare. We got re-settled in, and then sat on the ground for about an hour to wait for them to change three tires. This whole thing has made me quite leery of air-travel. I don't like to know how much scary machinery is just waiting to go bad out of nowhere. 

After a blearly, hazy flight to London, we took a flight to Frankfurt that I only vaguely recall being on. And then finally we got our flight to Rome. It was too late to hop on the train into the city, so we had to take a pricy cab, but it was worth the money. 32 hours later, we finally fell asleep on the hardest bed known to man. Those Italians love a firm mattress. 

We woke up the next morning and visited all of our favorite spots in Rome--we had lunch in front of the Coliseum, visited the Forum (that college Latin isn't going to put itself to use),  smooched at the Pantheon, got worn down by an overly persistent street peddler into buying a selfie stick, and hunted for the best gelato in the city. 

Later that evening we took a train into the Tuscan countryside to a little village called Montepulciano, where we stayed with my in-laws for several days. I slept for 17 hours, two days in a row. I've been waiting to do that for 2 years. 

 It rained a lot during the first few days, so we enjoyed some lazy downtime reading, napping, and eating. Oh, the eating. I ate carbs at every meal, and then had dessert. At. Every. Meal. I don't know what I was thinking trying to give up desserts before a trip to Italy.

 

After the rain passed, we did lots of walking up and down the cobblestones, combing through the village's little alleyways and hilly, winding streets. I re-discovered parts of my legs I forgot existed. 

Just getting some ideas for when I have teenagers.

My parents, who must be on some mission from God, generously kept the children for us. We FaceTimed with the beasties every night, and I missed them desperately. I've never been away from them for longer than a weekend, so it made my heart ache, but they were completely content at their grandparents' house (no doubt due to about 84,000 new toys and excessive sugar consumption). That's what grandparents are for, though, and we owe my parents their own Tuscan vacation. They're going to have to settle with the Limoncello we brought back for them. Sorta the same. 

Meanwhile at Grandma's..

After five days roaming the Tuscan countryside, we took the train back to Rome and spent a day at the Vatican and eating 3 servings of gelato. And public fondling.

Because that never gets old.

Then we started our trek back, which--due to poor European airtraffic planning and bad weather in Houston (oh, and the fact that we decided to make 3 damn connections)--took forever. I was trying my hardest to keep myself awake and beat jet lag, so I stayed awake the entire trip home, reading 2.5 books and watching 4 movies in one day. Nobody ever said I wasn't efficient.

Since returning, I have enjoyed sleeping on our amazing king-sized Tempurpedic mattress and getting the max amount of snuggles possible from my little beasties, who have seemingly sprouted up overnight and returned with way more toys than necessary. 

It was necessary to get some alone time with Alex. We are tight in our day-to-day life, of course, but so much effort goes into the children. It felt amazing to travel alone together and sleep in and enjoy adult conversations without screaming "no!" and "stop that!" and "stop eating hand sanitizer!" I think a trip together every now and then is the best thing a couple can do for their marriage, especially once having babies. It gave us time to enjoy each others' company without any stresses (well, aside from airport security), and it allowed us to miss our babies and really enjoy coming home, as well. I think we will try to do a trip alone together much more frequently from now on. 

If the grandparents haven't been scarred for life.