JFK with Trunki (hoping to wear them out, didn’t work); Overcast but a beautiful view of Milan from our apartment

New York to Milan on a redeye. The risk associated with taking a redeye with tots does not justify the rewards, whatever those are. Saving a day? No, you are actually ruining 2 days. Our flight was at 6pm, the flight was 8 hours long, so best case scenario, say we slept the whole way, we still arrive at 2am New York time. A 6pm flight pretty much ensures that there will be no sleep and just the last 2 hours of the flight if any. Which is exactly what happened. But prior to falling asleep though, there was misery, for all on board. Tired but not tired enough to conk out means cranky incessant whining with actual crying sprinkled throughout. They were doing horrifying things: i.e. standing up on the seat facing the passengers sitting behind us and coughing right at them (I stretched my hand out to cover her mouth but not in time for that first spray); escaping her seat and clawing and crying and waking up passengers all along the aisle. I have often been complimented on how well my tots are on flights. Clearly not this time, they thought we were wolves.

We arrive with too much luggage (there were 5 of us, 3 adults and 2 tots) and 2 car seats. Cars in Italy are small. We called for a van but a small sedan arrived instead. We gave it a college try to get all people and luggage in the car, but we ended up leaving my husband behind at the airport with still more luggage for a return trip back. I couldn’t leave a tot behind but both car seats would not fit, so I did the unthinkable (unthinkable if we were home), one sat on my lap. Milan Milpensa airport is an hour away from the city, and we arrived at 8am local time which means rush hour, so it took us about 80 minutes. Everyone smokes here, I am not sure if that was the cause but the car smelled like cigarettes and my older daughter got sick – car sick probably from the stop and go traffic and smell. I was afraid she would have an Exorcist moment but thankfully, it was just stomach slosh that came out. Luckily, I had a Travel John with me in case she did actually vomit.

We arrived at a friend’s apartment we are staying while we’re here; it is on Corso Italia, right in the center of the city. I was happy but delirious from not sleeping. Good thing I have a friend here who arrived a day earlier so she was in good shape to watch my one tot while I headed straight for the bed with the other. One long nap and a perfect meal later, I am recovered but wide-awake at 4am feeding the tots the dinner they didn’t eat at dinner time. Let’s see what tomorrow brings, our first full day in Milan. Oh, and there’s not internet connection at the apartment so who knows when you will here from me again!