By guest mom snob Ruby
Before she turned two, my pre-schooler has zipped through some of the world’s most interesting – and well, snob-populated – zip codes, from the urban jungles to the desert, the mountains, the ocean and yes, even the Arctic. People either admired or hated me for having the guts to travel with a baby as early as two months old. Well, call it a total surrender to a wanderlust that just won’t go away. A baby will never stop me from going places and all I needed was the right gear to accomplish my goal.
Hunt for the right stroller!, was a commandment that I followed religiously as I combed through stroller stores. I tested them all, rejecting them one by one as I went folding and unfolding and gliding through the aisles, until I got my hands on the Italian-made Inglesina Zippy. I fell in love with the Zippy’s true, single-hand fold. Its folding mechanism’s unique pull-up handle indeed allowed multitasking -folding the stroller with one hand while standing upright and safely holding the baby with the other.
The Zippy that I picked was also light — all of 14 lbs. — so lugging it with one hand while going on and off the stairs to get on train platforms in Europe, or scaling those cobbled streets of fortified castles in the mid-Pyrenees in the south of France was indeed a zip. The stroller’s four-position full recline backrest, adjustable leg rest and a five-point harness also ensured a cozy, comfortable all-terrain ride for my daughter, yes even on snow-packed roads in the dead of winter in the Arctic circle.
My Zippy has survived three years of abuse, of banging and manhandling at the airports, but what really impressed me is that despite all this my stroller, save for the cloth part, is still intact. Two weeks ago –on a lark – I emailed the Inglesina U.S. headquarters in New Jersey to inquire if it’s possible to outfit my Zippy with a new seat, hood, bumper and basket. I immediately got a reply back asking what color I was eyeing for and a day later, I was on the phone with the company’s U.S. manager and three days later it arrived! Sooner than I was ready to say Arrivederci! Inglesina Zippy Stroller
I have been trying to reach someone from Inglesina for the last 2 weeks. No one has returned a telephone call or even e-mailed me. My experience with their customer service has been terrible. I am still waiting for a return call.
The product is good.