This is Dante, Mike, Monique and Luke’s dog. Every summer he comes over with them from New York to spend his holidays in San Giorgio. He travels in a doggy bag which they are allowed to take on as cabin luggage. This year, travelling with Air France, they arrived at the airport and were told that “Dante was too fat” and that he would have to travel in the hold. The maximum weight of dog allowed in the cabin is 6 kilos and Dante is “slightly” over. Unable to bear the thought of Dante in the hold they decided to change Airline. They got a flight with Delta Airlines whose policy was – “if he can fit in the bag then he can travel”. All the changes meant that they arrived in Italy later than planned and also in a different town – Pisa instead of Bologna – which meant a 5 hour instead of a 2 hour drive to San Giorgio which meant arriving at 9.00pm instead of 11.00am.
For the return flight in September Dante is avoiding Air France and will be returning with Delta Airlines. In case the airline changes its policy on “animal weights” Dante is going on long daily walks.