A better traveler

Italy was the longest trip I've ever taken at 22 days- the only other was 16 days in Germany/Prague back in 2006. On this trip, I packed lighter- a lot lighter-which made for easier traveling, both on the trains and schlepping my bags from the train station to the hotels.

Things I did well:

• I brought a mailing tube with me for art. When in Prague, I bought this painting at a street market, and spent a good chunk of time trying to find a tube to get it home safely. I knew I wanted to bring home art from this trip, so I brought a mailing tube with me in my backpack. It was perfect- and full for the journey home.
• Wine key- duh!
• Dr. Bonner's peppermint soap- good for everything: washing clothes, body, and glasses.
• clothesline for washing clothes out in sink
• Plastic baggies of different sizes for transporting stuff home safely
• bug spray- mosquitoes everywhere!
• an extra camera chip- so if anything went wrong, I had a back up. And, I used both so that if one failed, I didn't lose every picture (and thankfully, Paula let me back up 1 weeks of photos to her computer as an additional safety measure).
• small LED flashlight- essentially for when you're coming back to the hotel and can't see the lock to get into the room.

• 

Things I learned and will do differently next time:

• More kleenex- brought one travel pack, but with a cold and the fact the kleenex doesn't seem to exist in Italy (in the hotels, that is), I'd bring more. I had to buy some not so soft travel packs.
• Wet ones- Somehow, I left home without any hand sanitizer. I'd bring wet ones- good for cleaning hands and cleaning stains.
• I carry a small shopping bag in my purse for when I need an extra bag out shopping; it's lightweight and very small. Should have brought this for market runs-so I didn't have to use plastic bags.
• I bought a nice over the shoulder purse that was just large enough for my camera as well as necessities; I left my smaller travel purse at home- I wished I had brought that with me.
• Extra medicine- when the cold hit hard, I happily shared my medicine. I wished I would have also brought some dayquil/nyquil along with the homeopathic meds I brought- a little more to have on hand.
• for whatever reason, travel sizes toiletry items were hard to find in Italy. I ended up buying full size soap and conditioner when needed. Next time, I will throw a few extras of these in my bag- they'll be used up quickly, lightening the load and take virtually no space.

I took some other tips for future travel, mostly about clothing to bring (less cotton, more skirts and poly-blends). Overall, I did pretty well and definitely look forward to putting my education into use again soon! I took 659 pictures. I read 6 books. I'm not sure how many pounds of proscuitto I ate, but it was a lot. I drank copious amounts of local wine. I brought home 8 pieces of original art, as well as pecorino cheese, honey, olive oil, sun dried tomatoes, dried porcini mushrooms, and pasta. I bought a beautiful leather purse and a soft wool scarf from San Lorenzo market in Firenze. I have visual memories hanging on my walls today of my travels, goodies in my pantry to help recall the flavors, and my heart is full of the joy this trip gave me. Couldn't ask for much more than this.

For more photos, you can view my picasa album here.