Lost Luggage

So last Friday, I headed to Fiumucino airport for a long weekend in Paris, taking with me:

1) the Bambina;
2) the Bambina's stroller (which I was planning on checking in);
3) the Bambina's carry-on suitcase;
4) my carry-on suitcase; and
5) my purse.

We arrived at the airport and proceeded to the check-in counter. We had to wait in a long line to get to the front, during which time a horde of Japanese tourists in front of us provided in-line entertainment for the Bambina. When we finally got to the counter, the AlItalia agent looked at the stroller and told me that we had to take it with us to the airplane and check it in there.

"But that's not how it works on Air France (AlItalia's partner). Air France says that all strollers must be checked in at the check-in counter," I explained. (Why do I bother?).

But the agent was adamant. The stroller had to stay with me.

Now under normal circumstances, I am happy to push a stroller, but I also had a fairly full purse replete with crayons and books and travel snacks, plus I had the two travel suitcases and the Bambina. Looking back, I should have checked in the two carry-on suitcases. But I was reluctant to do that, first of all because the Bambina would have launched into an enormous, all-out tantrum on the floor of Fiumicino Airport if she were forced to watch her little suitcase disappear into check-in land, and secondly because the last time I checked in luggage in Rome that was not "special luggage" such as the stroller, it took two hours to retrieve it in Paris. So we kept everything.

Or should I say, we didn't check in anything. I unfolded the stroller, and the Bambina, promptly upon realizing its availability, sat in it and refused my suggestion to walk and pull her beloved little suitcase along with her. So I slung my purse over my shoulder, pulled the Bambina's suitcase with one arm behind me, pushed the stroller with the Bambina in it with another, and left my suitcase sitting in front of counter number 130 of Terminal A.

I didn't even notice the loss until we were boarding the flight and suddenly it dawned on me.

In France, the airport police would have blown my luggage to bits as soon as they realized that it had been abandoned. In Italy, not so. The very kind flight attendant told me that they had found my luggage, that they could not bring it to the plane now as the flight would have been delayed as a result, but that it was being taken to the airport Lost and Found and that I could ask the Lost and Found Office at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to arrange for the suitcase to be retrieved from Rome. Quelle naivete! Of course, the Paris airport authorities would have nothing to do with an abandoned piece of luggage in Rome. So I had to wait until the end of my long weekend to retrieve my luggage on my return to Fiumicino Airport. And nothing had been stolen from it (not that anyone would want to steal four-year old jeans, socks, underwear, and a bunch of used cosmetics).

The Frenchman was furious. How on earth was I able to leave an entire piece of luggage and forget all about it until boarding the plane??? On the other hand, my friend Francesca made me feel much better today. She told me this morning during our scambio di conversazione that four pieces plus a child was way too much for one person, what on earth was I thinking, and that the mother of the child she babysat regularly had lost her passport and ID three times while travelling with the little one. So while I may be somewhat absent-minded, it is a relief to know that I am not the only one. Assures me that I am not going crazy.