The Best Way to Visit Italy
Hint: whatever you're picturing, add babies.
John Byron Kuhner is a writer I deeply respect and enjoy, and shares a slew of articles giving advice to parents who wish to raise their children in a Classical home. Per our last article, I’m sure you aren’t surprised that those articles have resinated with me. The one that first got my attention? His description of being famous in Italy:
“There was one time in my life when I knew what fame was like. I walked down the streets and people stopped and stared. Young women gasped, covered their mouths, and slapped their friends’ arms, pointing at me: “Look! Look!” Shopkeepers ducked into their shops and came out with free gifts. Restaurant owners considered it the highlight of their day when I walked in the door. Groups of people would follow me with their eyes, smiling slightly, hoping I would stop to greet them. Complete strangers would come up to me and start talking. Special tours, free desserts, a glass of wine on the house — and it continued for two and half weeks.”
Kuhner is, of course, describing the effect traveling with twin babies had on the Italian population. It is well known that the populations in Europe are vastly declining due to small (or nonexistent) family sizes, and it only follows that babies are an even greater rarity. The anecdotes Kuhner includes of his children’s popularity in Italy are delightful and inspiring (at least to this new mom): the children are outright adored and celebrated, and everyone bent over backward to please them and, by proxy, their parents.
While this article makes no claims that we all have the means or ability to travel internationally with newborns, it does encourage you do so if at all possible. I could not agree more with his supposition that those grueling sleepless nights and pacing are much more pleasant to do abroad than in your own home. There is also the advantage of free flight for babies, meaning you can feed your wanderlust without breaking your bank any more than usual.
Read Kuhner’s full account (and see pictures of his children traveling the Italian peninsula) here.