5 lessons from traveling to Italy with kids

Boston Globe

04-07-2025

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Kids will be anxious about surprising stuff
. I expected them to be nervous about the long flight (I was!) or about not knowing the language (our flirtations with the handy Duolingo language app be damned). But when Andy, my 8th-grader, crawled into our bed on the first night at our Tuscan Vrbo, I was surprised: He hadn't done that for years. Turns out he was afraid to be in a new house — remote and up a windy road, to boot — and didn't want to let us out of his sight. Buddy! He wanted to know the Italian version of 911; he wanted to see our location on a map; and he wanted us to promise not to go anywhere without him. And I'd been worrying about neck pillows and melatonin.
It's possible to be
too
organized
. This applies to overpacking an itinerary and to stuffing a suitcase. The handy travel cubes I snagged to streamline suitcases? Totally worth it: They enabled me to pack more stuff and to have a built-in laundry bag to separate dirty clothes (essential with two boys). The cute toiletry bottles recommended by a friend? Complete disaster, because I was too rushed to label them. Jet-lagged and far from my familiar bathroom, I doused my contact lenses in bath gel and nearly blinded myself for a day. Usually, I just buy travel-sized toiletries from CVS. Definitely doing that next time. Sometimes, familiarity works.
Your plans might fall through, and that can be a blessing.
I'd meticulously planned a day trip to Florence, where we'd take in Michelangelo's famous works at
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This was a fiasco. First, our train into the city was late. (Public transport is essential and generally efficient; you cannot easily drive in Florence due to limited traffic zones.) Then came an unexpected bathroom detour. We were five minutes late for our tour, by which time the guide had departed with our group. I set a poor example for my kids by freaking out on the sidewalk amid throngs of tourists and, ultimately, we were out a bunch of money and left with nothing to do for four hours. We stood on the plaza in 98-degree heat, gazing at the architectural marvel, wondering what to do next.
But our empty schedule meant that we suddenly had time to eat at
Humanity is universal
. We live in a scary world. I spend most days at my laptop, working while doom-scrolling issues that make me worry for the planet — and for my kids. But exploring a small sliver of that planet with those kids was reassuring because of the personal interactions that reminded me how, on an individual level, so many people are wonderful: the cheerful chap who sold my son a Celtics jersey in Venice. (Yes, Andy bought a Boston souvenir in the City of Canals.) The nice lady who taught us how to ride a rickety, canopied four-person bike along the walls of Lucca (awkward, tiring, and I didn't pedal — but she was patient). The waiter at
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We're home now: adjusting to jet lag, relishing air conditioning (not tons of that in Italy), and doing the amount of laundry that comes with being far from home. But the world seems smaller now. I like that feeling. I hope my kids remember it, too.
Kara Baskin can be reached at