I really wanted to do something special for Matt’s 40th.

I was so proud of everything Matt had accomplished in his young adult years that I wanted to celebrate the transition into our next phase of life. We discussed our travel budget for the year and realized we had room for one big trip. We decided pretty quickly to combine our birthdays—his in March and mine in June. Besides irritating tourists, why would we want to leave Maine in June anyway?

Our last few trips had required a lot of logistics, movement, and activity. This time we wanted something slower. A recharge. We quickly decided on a quiet stay at our favorite hotel and spa in the world: ADLER Spa Resort Thermae.

As always, Matt then allowed me to figure out the rest—flights, additional cities, and logistics. But my brain was already cooking up something bigger.

We have been to the Adler many times, and while it will always be our favorite place, I wanted this trip to feel different. After all, this was a milestone birthday.

Then a thought entered my brain.

France is not very far from Italy.

Would Marius want to meet us in Italy for a weekend as a surprise?

I dismissed the idea almost immediately. There was no way in hell that a 16-year-old jock would want to waste a weekend with two middle-aged gays. At the time, we were also just a few months away from visiting him and his family for the holidays. There was no chance his parents would let him fly alone to Italy just two months later.

None of this made sense.

In the meantime, I started scanning flights.

The Adler Thermae is in rural Tuscany, so our airport options were Rome or Florence. If the boy were actually going to meet us, Rome interested me more—it would be incredible for him to see the Vatican or the Forum—but Florence had much better award redemptions. Florence won.

The best redemption we found included a 45-minute layover in Zurich. That was very tight, but we figured the worst case scenario would be spending a night in Zurich on the airline’s dime. We booked it.

Once the trip felt real, I decided to text the boy.

I worded it carefully:

“We’re going to be in Italy for Matt’s 40th. I would love for you to come surprise him and spend a weekend with us. Is that something you would want to do? If yes, ask your parents.”

I assumed he would politely say no. Too busy with school. Too complicated.

Instead, almost immediately, I received a response:

“Yes!”

I then emailed his mother to make sure she was okay with it.

Not only was she okay with it, she told me the timing actually worked perfectly. Marius was off from school that week and could spend more time with us if we wanted.

More time with the boy? Yes please.

Now my brain was spinning.

What if Marius joined us in Florence for a few nights and then came to the Adler with us for a few more days? The timing even worked out because his birthday was around that same week.

A few more texts later, the boy was officially in on the surprise.

There was only one problem.

The 45-minute connection in Zurich was now unacceptable.

If even a small delay caused us to miss that flight, the boy could end up in Florence before us.

I did not feel comfortable with the idea of Marius being in a strange city (lol, Florence?) by himself. We had to beat him there no matter what.

So the question became: how do I change the flights without Matt asking too many questions?

Our original itinerary was through United (operated by Swiss). I started checking the United website every day looking for better options. Thankfully, United allows free cancellations on award tickets, so changing flights would be easy.

A few weeks later I found something better: a route from Boston on Lufthansa with a 2.5-hour connection in Frankfurt.

I presented the idea to Matt.

“Why risk the tight connection? Two and a half hours makes a missed connection much less likely.”

Matt agreed, and we rebooked.

Problem solved.

Until it wasn’t.

Hello, have we met? My name is Andrew and I am a Jewish gay.

Do you really think my mind was at ease even with a 2.5-hour connection?

It’s winter in Boston.

What if there was a storm that cancelled our flight? What if someone got sick on the plane and we had to divert? What if the plane broke and Lufthansa moved us to a flight the next day? What if Trump did something stupid and the airport closed while we were mid-Atlantic?

No. This was not going to work.

The risk was too great that our poor sweet little Marius—the 17-year-old French champion wrestler who could easily kick my ass—would end up alone in Florence, curled up in a ball at baggage claim.

Because clearly the The St. Regis Florence, one of the best hotels in the world, would absolutely refuse to pick him up and check him into our room until we arrived.

We needed to get to Europe sooner.

But how could I mask the real reason from Matt?

Florence is a small city, and we had already been before. Trying to convince Matt to take extra PTO just to spend another day in Florence didn’t make sense.

Then I started searching United again and saw the same mileage redemption to Paris.

Matt loves Paris and hadn’t been in years.

It was perfect.

Matt would never say no to Paris

Paris meant there was no scenario where Marius would arrive in Florence before us because I booked us on the eariest Paris to Florence flight for the day of the surprise. If something happened to that flight…well worst case we would move to Marius’ flight. While a surprise at Charles de Gaulle is not exactly what I had in mind, it was better than the alternative of Marius arriving before us.

I presented the idea to Matt.

He voiced his displeasure about changing flights for the third time, but he couldn’t deny Paris.

Logistics solved. I emailed the St. Regis, and the concierge and I started plotting the surprise.

Up next: our Paris Trip Diary and Renaissance République review.

Bon Voyage,

Andrew Reiser |Travel Advisor

Website: https://www.foratravel.com/advisor/andrew-reiser

Instagram: @areiser86

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