Athens, Santorini, & Rome: what we realized.featured

There are many ways to write about travel, and they each have unique value. I plan to share specifics and photos from our trips because I find value in those types of posts when we’re planning a trip. But I also want to share about the moments we experience that may not be tied to any specific location or event. If you’re looking for the detailed posts, they are sitting as drafts soon to be published, but first I want to share some of the highlights of this trip in no particular order.

Perhaps the most enlightening part of traveling with young children is that they do not grasp the significance of historic places or acclaimed works of art. We spend a good amount of time before trips reading stories about the places we’re going (Greek Myths and Tales of the Greek Heroes for this trip) to give them a starting point, but that in no way means they will care about the significance of the Parthenon more than the crazy amount of pebbles in the surrounding pathways. And to be honest, I love the freedom it gives me to accept that things I expect to move or impact me simply don’t.

My experience is deeply tied to interaction. In Rome, I can touch the columns of the Pantheon and watch the rain fall through its oculus. I can stand in the Sistine Chapel and imagine the weight of decisions made there for hundreds of years surrounded and impacted by Michelangelo’s frescoes. I can walk along a first century Roman street while hearing the underground spring that brought water to centuries-old homes. And I’m entranced. I’m in love. I can imagine people throughout centuries coming to the same place, walking on the same stones, hearing the same sounds. It’s kinetic. I feel the energy of so much life that has happened in these places. And it’s grounding. It makes the panic of current events seem like a dim whisper in the roar of history. The same is true for me with art. I feel more connection to the David on open display than I do to the Pieta behind glass. More connection to Vermeer’s View of Delft than the Mona Lisa. More connection to the Panathenaic Stadium of 1896 than the 5th century BC Acropolis.

I am fascinated by language. I panic about my pronunciation any time I have to speak a foreign language, but I love hearing the cadence and unfamiliar sounds that uniquely define each language. We love to guess where fellow travelers are from based on hearing them speak, and we are getting significantly better at it the more we travel. This trip, we were thrilled that Molly recognized different languages for the first time. For the past year and a half, she has been charmingly chatting to anyone within earshot completely unaware when they don’t understand what she’s saying and completely un-phased that she doesn’t understand them. While we predominantly heard English on this trip, she asked why our taxi driver was “talking like that.” After rephrasing the question, we explained to her that people use different words and sounds depending on where they’re from. I’m excited to find ways to expose her to other languages on a more long-term basis now that she is aware of its ability to impact communication.

Over the past year, we have been getting into a rhythm with traveling, and I think this trip gave me the confidence to finally say we know what we’re doing. This absolutely does not mean we don’t have moments of stress or over-tired, grumpy kids (and parents). It means that we rarely lose perspective or worry much when those moments happen. We’ve found methods that work for our family, and we’ve worked hard to eliminate the obvious sources of travel stress, most significantly overpacking our bags and schedule. I’m thrilled because this gives us the confidence to move beyond our new comfort zone and challenge ourselves more. Just in time for a planned trip to Rio de Janeiro in August for the Olympics!