We made it!
We’re really here!
Thank you to everyone who has checked in on us. Connection with others has helped immensely during this transition period.
So, how was it travelling with 15 bags, a cat and two kids?
Answer: exactly as you would think. But harder.
In this post, I’ll go through our first 36 hours from the flight to our first day.
Airport Trials and Tribulations
Ben was the friend of the century and sat with the girls while we dealt with check-in. Donnie(cat)’s pet paperwork had an issue and we were told we couldn’t bring him! Luckily, we were able to get ahold of his vet 20 mins before office close and they emailed us an updated certificate with the corrected date range.
Steve says the back-up plan was for Laura to fly solo with the girls and he would graciously fly later with Donnie… luckily this never happened or you’d be hearing of our impending divorce.
Other airport occurrences of note:
Laura’s mom’s car was rear-ended while driving us to the airport (everyone is fine).
Passport scare where we thought we lost Steve and Lina’s US passports (found them 20mins later).
Power went out at MSP airport(!) while we were carrying Donnie out of his crate through the security scanner.
Were told by flight attendants that Donnie’s carrier isn’t compliant for international flights (they let us go anyways).
Luca puked.
Donnie did use the portable litter box in each airport when we let him out in the family bathroom! He truly is our golden, most best behaved child.
Landing in Florence
We land in Florence around 5pm on 12/31. Hurrah! What the car rental joint didn’t mention is that they close early and will not be able to help us at all.
So, we find the biggest taxi available(basically a tiny party bus) and load up. Unfortunately the driver speaks zero english, speaks in a lot of slang and absolutely cannot find the Airbnb which was a tough crash course for Laura to recall Italian but we made it work and got there around 8pm. The next day we found it was a cute little place surrounded by olive trees.
Day 1
Steve spends 4 hours walking/bussing around Florence trying to find a new rental car since our reservation the night earlier was no longer good. Not easy since most of the city is shut down but he figured it out! Shortly, we began moving our bags to our more permanent Airbnb in Florence. Check out our new digs.

Our Airbnb is truly amazing. Walkable to so many things yet quiet enough to sleep well without street noise. An amazing Pasticceria one block away. We love it and it has plenty of room for guests. Book your tickets now to visit us:
Viale Europa, 185C, 50126 Firenze FI.
Ciao tutti!
Laura e Stevie
So excited for you! Thank you for writing this blog so that we can all follow along and live vicariously!
Wow, quite the journey! In awe of your perseverance!!