France and Italy...Traveling with kids begins.

We have a 4 year old.., we have a 9 month old... and we (my husband Jon and I) have the traveling spirit still... even after having kids.  It is very intimidating thinking about traveling to Europe with kids for 2 months, and guess what... overall... it turned out to be a trip of a lifetime!  

So here come our adventures from Vancouver Island, Canada to Europe. Can you see the intrepidation in this quick last minute snap shot of the fam before we jump onto good ol BC Ferries to start out adventure? Look at us closely and you will see utter innocence of what is about to happen (Enzo, holding a dollar store bag of immediate pleasure type of objects or food) and tips and tricks with traveling with kids to a whole bunch of cool places including Paris 》Milan 》Finale Ligure 》Varigotti 》Noli 》Pietre Ligure 》Final Borgo 》Cinque Terre 》Levanto 》 Genova 》Gallipoli 》Ostuni 》Otranto》Bari 》Brindisi 》 Lecce.  An adventure it shall be.  We are hoping to experience the communities and people, progress in the Italian language, and make amazing family memories; oh, and eat delicious tomato salads, pasta, croissants and much much more!

How did we manage to escape real life jobs for a two month trip?  Shared parental leave.  In Canada when you have a baby the mom automatically is granted 3 months of maternity leave from work with 65% pay (this does have a max).  Then after those 3 months run out it turns into 9 months of Parental Leave which can be taken by either the mom or the dad.  So Jon took the last three months of our parental leave and we left for a trip to Europe in the middle of those 3 months for 2 months.  While he was off on Parental leave and getting paid 65% of his wage, I was getting paid nothing of my wage, but was still off of work.  A magical time where we could both not be working and not worried about our jobs disappearing.  Thank you Canada!

Key things that made this trip work

• Being Canadian and having a baby
• Really loving your partner and kids, as you are with them 24/7 and talking to them and them alone for the majority of your time
• Packing lightly as you not only are hauling all your luggage but two little people.
• Baby Carrying, thank you Ergo Carrier from Huckleberry Baby Shop.
• Using AirBNB to book places to stay well in advance as well as last minute.  Sign up for AirBNB here, you will not regret it.

As always leave a comment if you have any questions, more posts to come!