A Room with a View (and a Fire Escape): Emergency Preparedness on Your Italy Family Holiday

– Gather the local emergency contact information for the area you plan to visit and keep this information with you in your purse or backpack, as well as on site in your hotel or vacation rental. It is also advisable to list any allergies among members of your party, travel and primary insurance details, and the phone number of a third-party contact not traveling with you.

National Emergency: phone 112 (for general police, ambulance, firefighters)
Police: phone 113. Ambulance: phone 118. Fire brigade: phone 115.

Information about local English-speaking doctors and emergency clinics can be found for each region on Italiakids.com in the Healthcare Listings.The US state department website and other national embassy websites are great resources for information about how to proceed in the event of an emergency in the area you are visiting. You may want to ask the concierge at your hotel or your rental agency contact for the cell phone number of a local, English-speaking physician. It is also useful to jot down some key phrases for describing symptoms or emergency situations (these can be found in many guide books).- When checking in to your hotel or vacation rental, have the concierge or rental agency contact go over the essential safety and evacuation information with two responsible adults in your party. Ask them to point out the location of smoke alarms and verify that they function. If bedrooms are on the second floor or higher, ask your contact to show you a plan of the building and the escape route to the ground level.- Many doors and windows in old buildings have metal bars and can be locked from the inside only in some cases, a dangerous scenario in certain emergencies like fire. If you are staying in a villa or apartment, be sure that every adult member of your party is aware of the escape plan and locks up the house at night accordingly (locking the house or apartment is also an important safety precaution). Be sure to leave a key in the lock or on a table or sill directly adjacent to the lock in a door on the ground level and on any upper level with an exit. Also describe this procedure to any children mature enough to understand.

– At home, our family has a “meeting place” outside, which is where we instruct our children to wait for us if we have to evacuate the house due to an emergency like fire or earthquake. It is also a good idea to create a meeting place for the kids at your vacation rental, somewhere safe where they know they must wait until a responsible adult in their party or emergency personnel join them. This can prevent children from wandering off and getting lost in an emergency situation, or even worse, heading back into a dangerous site.

– If your child does not have your cell phone number in use abroad memorized, write the international number on masking tape and affix it to something your child is wearing or carrying.

– For both urban and rural areas abroad, assess the terrain and formulate an idea of how to conduct a safe evacuation in the event of emergencies like flood or fire. Take the example of a villa stay in the countryside amid rolling foothills on a secluded farm at the end of a one-lane, unpaved road… be sure you inquire about other means of access/exit on the property in the event of a fire. Many of these properties do connect to other roads via old fire or tractor trails. For lodging in the city, traffic may be a consideration. Assess the location of your hotel or apartment and discuss the best possible evacuation routes with at least one other responsible adult in your party.

– Be sure to have one responsible adult in your group carry a first-aid kit. This will not only save you the trouble of scouting out Neosporin at a foreign pharmacy; simple first aid materials can be a crucial first response in the event of medical emergencies (but never hesitate to call an ambulance if needed).

Finally, relax and enjoy your holiday knowing that should an emergency arise, your family is prepared to handle it.

Author Shannon Kenny is the Founding Editor of Italiakids.com, Director of the Arte al Sole children’s arts and cultural programs in Italy, and Founding Partner of Elaia Travel, a boutique travel concierge specializing in custom travel to Italy and Europe.