TIA

All I can remember from 20 years ago are some beautiful scenery and wonderful beachs. What time of the year might you be going.

Dare I ask how can you travel at the moment?

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Dare I ask how can you travel at the moment?

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yeah, what david said.

i would swear someone posted recently about a trip to sicily.

We are planning on going in September. The baby can stay behind with the grandmothers then. Vacation is my choice this year so a few days in Rome (go to Rome first so my wife can shop - after she shops there my wine purchases will seem like a mere drop in the bucket) followed by a few days in Positano and then a week in Sicily is my call.

Again, what both said. I remember I had lots of fun in a jazz festival in Acicastello (there's a nice Sheraton there with a private beach/dock with crystal clear water, but the comune is very small); loved Taormina; didn't see much in Catania (but again I didn't stay much time there); went all the way up to the Etna (ok, but no "wow"); and loved the Isole Eoli, specially Lipari and Vulcano.

Do you have a place picked out where to stay in Positano? Tricia and I spent a great couple of days there with a room that the greatest balcony and unbelievable view ever. I'll see if she can remember the name of the place.

What I liked is that it was built on the edge/side of a cliff a couple of hundred feet above the sea. The view from the balcony besides the panoramic view was straight down the cliff about 100 yards to a small swimming pool, a small private beach and wht waves crashing on the rocks immediately below. if you don't like heights this is not the place. There was an elevator that went down to the beach. Good food too.

Any suggestion would be welcome. Le Sirenuse and the San Pietro have both come highly recommended so far.

i guess what i remembered waslandshark discussing an upcoming trip to italy, beginning in sicily, which he put in tj's travelogue. i would assume you hve already looked there, though.

for what it's worth, katy could hardly sleep for a single night away from our son when he was 6 months old when we went to sacramento for brent's big offline wine dinner at the firehouse. perhaps you will fare better with more distance & more time away involved . good luck .

My wife and I are going to Sicily along with most of Italy in October, anything I find out while researching I will pass along.

We could never leave the kids at home when they were babies; we even took my oldest daughter on a movie location for three weeks with us when she was 2 1/2 months old. I do not think we went on a long vacation (week or longer) with out them, until they were ten or twelve and that was only a few times. I travel so much on my own for work that I looked forward to the trips we take with the girls. They grow faster than you realize.

Tricia wouldn't leave Jeffrey or Chris for more than one night alone until they were two years old... and that was even a problem. We had a couple of overnights to Carmel. When we went to Santa Barbara (to see her family) we always took the babies.

Two differences though probably... Tricia was breast feeding and we didn't have any family in the area to leave them with.

After five years we hired an aupere and took one of the best (read spent the most money) vacations we ever had. After all we had been saving up for those five years.

Now please don't take this as throwing cold water on your plans. I just wanted to share my experiences. Of course that was 25 years ago too.

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Tricia wouldn't leave Jeffrey or Chris for more than one night alone until they were two years old... and that was even a problem. We had a couple of overnights to Carmel. When we went to Santa Barbara (to see her family) we always took the babies.

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that's exactly what i'm talking about. of course one counterpoint to this would be, especially if breast feeding is part of the plan & sometime around 6 months is the targeted wean date, that this might be the perfect time for an extended seperation. but it still won't be easy.

JW1: Not Positano, but Amalfi. Stayed here many years ago and it was fabulous. It has since been renovated, and is even more so now.
Hotel Santa Caterina

As an aside, my daughter was a February baby. We took our first vacation in September of that year, leaving her with the grandparents. (Admittedly, we didn't go away for as long as you plan). We were given advice by old pros who said to plan a vacation 7 to 9 months after her arrival, pre-pay it, and don't allow yourself to cancel or back out. They said that after 9 months of pregnancy, and 6+ months of sleepless infant raising, the couple needs to re-connect. It was a tough sell, but we did it, and it was just what the doctor ordered. Don't let the naysayers get to you.

I like your argument JimmyV - I plan on stealing it for future use (if necessary). Life won't be over for the next decade or so unless I let it be.

Jimmyv has some very good advice. We took our first short vacation without the baby when he was seven months old. It was a very good thing. We are blessed to have two wonderful sets of grandparents who thrive on time with the kid.

We did it as well. Good advice. We're still doing it! Kids hate to go anywhere so we just leave them behind.