December 6, 2016

If you bring a young kid to Italy, better to bring a carrier than a stroller

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Photo Details: Colosseum, Rome, Italy (41.8902° N, 12.4922° E),  April 2011.

Italy is a beautiful country, modern yet ancient in a lot of ways. The most obvious manifestation of its heritage are the centuries-old cobblestone roads in most cities and its amazing collection of invaluable arts and architecture. Often most of its prized arts and historical collections are housed in museums within converted heritage buildings with beautiful split levels accessible by stairs and in some cases (now) by lifts. As most of these buildings are old, structurally it is very difficult to be modified to suit modern day needs such as air-condition and accommodating handicapped people. I never thought much about visiting such places and walking the few stairs to different floors to enjoy the marvellous displays until we brought our young son along when he was around 3 years old. We were then also not experienced enough to realise the niceties- instead of bringing and carrying him in a backpack child carrier, we opted to bring a stroller/pram. This caused enormous inconvenience while visiting museums as most of them do not have lifts conveniently located- even if they do, there are still needs to take a few flights of stairs to reach the lifts. This became a problem with a kid in a stroller!!
So a tip for travellers with young children visiting countries such as Italy and Spain; if you planned to visit museums, try to bring a carrier instead or on top of a stroller for your little one.

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