7/20-21 -- Traveling

August 25, 2022

Why Italy? Jourdan and I have always wanted to go to Italy; we toyed with the idea of going there for our honeymoon, but ended up only having 7 days between our wedding and my medical school graduation, which we didn’t feel was enough time. (Instead, we went to Las Vegas and stayed at The Venetian, so pretty much the same.) In the 15 years since then, we just haven’t had the right opportunity to go. But one of the best benefits of my job is that I get a 6-week sabbatical every 9 years (for a total of 3 times in my career here), so that felt like the right time. I was first eligible to take the sabbatical in 2019, but opted not to that year since we knew we wanted to travel to Italy, so I spent that year working a ton of extra hospital shifts to save money for it. And then 2020 and 2021 were what they were, so 2022 was the first opportunity to take it.

Our itinteray was inspired by Rick Steve’s Italy and some internet research, and the arrival and departure cities were determined by airplane ticket prices, but ultimately the agenda was ours.

The trip to Italy got off to a sad start. Our elderly basset hound, Lizzie (age 14; basset life expectancy is 8-12 years) had been struggling recently but always bounced back. We were hoping she would make it another couple of weeks, but she didn’t eat anything for over a day and this morning wouldn’t drink anything, stopped wagging her tail when we would pet her, and just laid in the grass while the sprinklers went off because she couldn’t move (she hates water). So, we made the decision to put her down this morning before we left. Our regular vet couldn’t get her in, so we had to go to the emergency vet. Owen and Jourdan took her, and it was a sad morning for all even though we knew it was the best decision. And probably good timing as well, because Charlie (our 3 year old basset) is staying with Jourdan’s mom and her dogs while we’re gone, so he at least won’t be alone.

The rest of the morning was taken up with running around, last minute packing, and getting ready to leave. We got to the airport and learned that Owen had forgotten his mask (discovered in the car where we had an extra), and his water bottle (discovered in the airport where there was nothing we could do about it). We also discovered that I’d gotten bad intel and sunscreen is not, in fact, considered a medical liquid, so we had to throw our three full bottles of it at security. But we got on the plane and settled in for a long day of travel . . .

7/21

Julia’s 8th birthday!

The kids survived their first international flight. Not a whole lot of sleep was had so everyone was tired when we arrived in Amsterdam. Kids’ first passport stamps! Flight from Amsterdam was delayed, so we would now arrive too late to check in to our apartment in Milan. We tried calling twice — no options for late check in. So we booked a last minute apartment and hoped for the best. Most of our time in the Amsterdam airport was spent trying to figure out our lodging for the night, but the biggest takeaway is that the airport bathrooms are really nice.

Finally landed in Milan at 7:50 pm. Took the train into town from the airport; the last minute place we had booked to stay was right across the street from the train station, but after-hours check in was across town and by the time we arrived at the train station, we only had an hour to check in. We took two taxis (because our family is too big for just one!) across town; they kindly waited with us while we checked in and then drove us back to our place — 80 euros in cabs to take us across the street for our point of origin. But we made it, and finally climbed into bed a little after midnight, 28 hours after we left our house.