Traveling to Italy

Although I thought I was all set and ready to go, I spent the last few minutes before we left for the airport throwing things in bags! It is very difficult trying to figure out what to pack when moving to another country for the year. The one thing though that I made sure that I had packed ahead of time was all of my medication, doctor's notes and records, and my Italian Medic Alert bracelet. Those were most important!

I was flying Luftansa and called about my allergies ahead of time. They will not fly nut free though, which I actually remembered when I called from past flight experience. I asked when I got to the terminal to be the first to board, so that I could wipe down my seat. I had to be a bit insistent, but I was in the first group of people boarding. Instead of flying nut free, they were actually handing out bags of nuts...helpful! It did certainly give me some anxiety. I ended up being very lucky though, because I was bumped up to business class, where I had more room then I knew what to do with! I always wipe down the seat when I first get on the plane, so I did that and then got comfortable. I brought my own travel pillow and blanket, so that I didn't have to worry about that either.

The plane flight was va bene (okay)! In business class, they serve all sorts of tasty looking foods and drinks. I didn't have anything though, of course! I barely like eating the food that I pack on the plane. I would never even consider eating anything provided by the airline! The flight went by pretty fast. It was a short flight anyway for me, compared to all my travels back and forth to Australia!

I had a layover in Munich, so I sat at a table in the airport and ate some of the food that I had packed. I felt more comfortable eating it on solid ground, than on an airplane flying over the ocean.

My last flight was on this teeny, tiny, ity, bity, thirty-seater! I am not a huge fan of small planes, so I didn't really enjoy it, but it was short, which made it okay. I asked before the flight if they were serving a snack, and they said that they weren't. I ended up falling asleep, but I did realize that they were passing out a snack, which luckily was not nuts! Phew...

All in all, my travel experience went well. I am used to airlines not being nice or flexible about my allergies, so it is something I am always prepared for. I will have to write about the numerous times I have had them say, "Maybe you shouldn't be flying if your allergies are that severe. You should find another way to get there." Clearly that is an easy solution to places where flying is the only option! I will explain more about this in another blog...