So I’m expecting a call back from a reporter from the New York Times. I’m not sure why he wants to talk to me, but I’m curious to find out. Anyhow, I’m in an Internet Cafe in Siena with my X-Lite phone fired up so I can answer my home phone from here.

In comes a call. I’m thinking it’s the reporter and I get all geared up to talk to him. Instead, its a solicitation: some woman selling mortgage insurance.

I got to tell her “take me off your list” all the way from Italy. Isn’t technology wonderful?

We made it to Siena after a day of airports and airplanes. I was expecting to say “long day,” but it really didn’t seem that long. It was an adventure. This family is made up of adventurers.

I am sitting outside our apartment in a lounge chair, watching the sun rise behind me. A chorus of swallows and mourning doves are greeting me, along with one or two roosters. At ten meters away, a feral cat watches me hopefully. The air is crisp and clear.

Our trip began Friday morning as we gathered our goods for our trip. Hallie and I came up with the “Italy song,” which goes like this:

We’re going to Italy, Italy, Italy
We’re going to Italy, where we can spend some time.

(Hallie came up with the last verse.)

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, since Independence Air pushed our flight back an hour and neglected to tell us. Indy Air seems to be copying Midway Airlines’ strategy for wooing travelers, right down to the surly-seeming flight attendent. Having a direct flight to Dulles was nice, though. Not having to drive an extra six hours was especially nice.

We quickly met up with the Swansons and gathered our bags from baggage claim. After an easy time through security, we grabbed a quick lunch at the food court near our gate. None of us was looking forward to the long flight ahead, so we made the most of our freedom before our boarding.

Our baggage consisted of two large rolling bags filled with clothes, two brightly-colored duffel bags with diapers and supplies, three backpacks (the diaper bag, Kelly’s blue bag with snacks, and my gadget bag), the Baby Bjorn, the umbrella stroller, and the two carseats. We managed to tie everything but the carseats to the rolling bags, which made it fairly easy to move through the airport.

Yes, the carseats were a pain to handle. They’re bulky, they don’t strap easily to other things, but they are the best recipe for happy, sleeping kids on a plane. Do whatever you can to ensure they stay as close as possible to your kids. Do not check them, do not gate-check them. Insist they stay with
you and you will be richly rewarded. Well, well worth the effort.

Air France gave us about 20 seconds warning before they began preboarding. Hallie managed to produce a dirty diaper just as the announcement went out. We scrambled to gather our things and only did after half the plane was loaded.

Our seats were nice, however, mostly due to the roomy-seeming interior of the Boeing 777. We had the three seats on the left side, making it easy for us to maneuver around. Travis, Kelly, and I sat in front of Hallie, Gum, and Gup. David and Anna sat many seats back, with David occasionally coming up for a visit.

Service was excellent on Air France. Each seat had a video display, offering a variety of movies, news, music, games, and my favorite: a moving map of the plane’s location. Knowning the progress the plane was making made the trip go so much faster. In fact, I was suprised at how much land there is between the
two continents. A great deal of the time, options for an emergency landing were available. Comforting to know.

I watched the movie “War Games” and the TV show “Mission Impossible,” surprised at how good each show really was. “War Games” had aged very, very well and “MI” has resurged in popularity in Europe (and for good reason).

The inflight meal was very French and very tasty. The flight attendents were quick to serve us and very generous with the wine and other drinks. It was a pleasure to fly.

Sleep was hard to come by on the plane. Travis got the most of it, fortunately, but only after ten minutes of squawking. Kelly and I shifted around a bit but never got rested. In spite of Gum and Gup snoozing next to her, Hallie kept herself entertained by “reading” to herself. She seemed to go
on and on! At least she was happy. When she finally did succumb to sleep, she did so shallowly. Twice, Hallie popped her head up and laughed, eyes wide open but sound asleep. I wish I knew what she was dreaming.

Before we knew it, the map showed us over Ireland with just an hour left until Paris. No sweat, I thought. This trip is easy.

A few challenges remained, however. The plane landed late at Paris. We were met at the bottom of the stairs by a gate agent, who was holding a sign with our flight number to Florence. We were hustled on to separate buses and raced to the terminal in a mad dash to get our next flight. Running with our bags to
get to Customs, the agent then argued with the staff to get us checked in. To the front of the line we went each time, with the airport staff grumbling angrily at him and us.

We all managed get through this gauntlet in time to board the bus to our next plane. Total time in Paris: twenty minutes! As we rolled out to the plane, we burst out laughing at the sight outside: we had ended our race through the airport only twenty meters from where we began it!

By the time our plane was loaded, there were ten planes ahead of us in line for the runway, so the flight to Florence left an hour late. Hallie, who’d been a good sport up until then, finally lost it. Luckily, it wasn’t too long a flight.

We gathered up our stuff, piled into two rental cars, and took off to Siena. After some scary time on the roundabouts and skinny streets, we finally made it to the farmhouse. Beautiful! We put our stuff down and headed back out to the city by bus, stopping for a pizza at the Campo di Piazza downtown. In spite of not sleeping for well over 24 hours, we ended our first day at 11 PM!

I’ve got lots more to post, but not much time to do it as I’m a busride between here and the farmhouse. To be continued…