On arrival at our first Italian ‘Chic Retreat’, an elegant apartment in the Isola area of Milan called Casa Titta, we encountered our first problem with the Maclaren double buggy – it wouldn’t fit into the only opening door of the apartment block and we therefore had to struggle in the street offloading all the random bags we had acquired along the way as well as both children so we could try to get our things through the door and up the stairs to the lift. When inside the building it was an equally tricky negotiation to load everything into the 1930s wooden elevator and we were so long battling with it that our host Domitilla had to call down to see if everything was ok.
Earlier, while I had been running around the train station getting an Italian SIM for my phone and withdrawing Euros from the ATM, I had bought a big bag of crisps to keep the children quiet in the buggy. On arrival at Casa Titta, as we were shown our elegant, airy room, my 18-month-old son sat down on the bed and promptly tore open the bag and crisps tumbled everywhere. I dropped to my knees to pick them up apologising profusely. I was mortified, while at the same time tried to maintain my professional composure. My host managed to keep her poise and invited us into her exquisite drawing room filled with books and objet d’art to drink a Campairi. Both children clamoured for a juice and were given little cartons with straws. While I was engrossed in Domitilla’s overview of the local area my little boy was squirting juice from his carton onto her lovely polished tile floors – I finished the conversation with my bum in the air on my hands and knees again. Back in the beautiful room I scanned for all potential tools for vandalism – complimentary pens or pencils could put an end to this trip before it has even begun! Luckily there was no such weaponry and instead our affable host produced a box of toys. Thank goodness under the ‘house rules’ section of the website it says ‘children welcome’!