When this posts, we’ll be arriving home from our 10 day trip to Italy. A short synopsis of our itinerary:
- LNK to ORD (O’Hare)
- ORD to LHR (Heathrow)
- LHR to FCO (Rome – Fiumicino)
- 4 nights at the Hotel Artemide, Rome
- Rome to Sorrento via the Eurostar & Circumvesuviana trains
- 4 nights at the Palazzo Abagnale in Sorrento
- Sorrento to Naples via ferry; Naples to Rome via Eurostar
- FCO to LHR
- 1 night in London at the Holiday Inn Mayfair (IHG Friends & Family rate)
- LHR to ORD
- 1 night @ the O’Hare Hilton (free – points)
- ORD to LNK
We put in a lot of miles and I’m happy to say, never checked a bag (other than gate checking for the LNK/ORD/LNK flights). I used my Andiamo Valoroso 20″ wheeled duffel, and Pat used a Landor & Hawa Sub-0-G 21″ wheelie. More on those in subsequent posts. Our itinerary was complicated when British Airways eliminated our return flight – we were originally flying back via Naples to Gatwick, transferring to Heathrow and then back to O’Hare; this happened a couple of months ago (non strike related), and we made the decision to spend an evening and morning in London.
During the trip it became obvious that three items really stood out in terms of their usefulness: my iGo travel charger, a pair of Orvis slacks I relied upon heavily, and my BlackBerry, configured to work in the UK and Italy. Honorable mention: my trip planner booklet.
We’ll spend the next day unpacking and unwinding (mostly unwinding), but I’ll follow up on these three items and just how useful they were in subsequent posts, as well as share a few other trip reports and reviews. We had a great time!
June 10th, 2010 at 7:51 PM
Welcome back! I’ll be interested in hearing more about your trip, as the wife and I will be heading over to Italy in 3 months. This will be the first “official” one-bag trip of any significant length for us.
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June 11th, 2010 at 6:11 AM
Mark,
Thanks. I should be able to provide some helpful advice and tips. I’ll also post my complete packing list, what I shouldn’t have packed, and what I wish I’d packed (2 items in particular!!).
I can’t remember – you’re going to Rome? Anywhere else?
Kevin
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Mark Reply:
June 11th, 2010 at 7:44 AM
We’ll be there for a full two weeks and are still working on the itinerary. Generally, we’ll be hitting Rome, Florence and Venice, as well as some smaller towns here and there. Given the wife’s requirement for Venice, it doesn’t look like we’ll be hitting the Amalfi/Naples region.
My Tri-Star arrived yesterday and I’ll be giving it a test run for a business trip next week. It seems small for a two-week trip to Europe, but a quick, rough test-pack shows it should hold everything on my packing list.
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June 13th, 2010 at 7:38 PM
I’m curious to hear more about the iGo travel charger. In my perpetual attempts to reduce unnecessary weight I’ve been looking at charging alternatives. The iGo seems like it would replace all my chargers and only weighs half the size of my netbook’s charger, so I’m hoping this will let me shed a good half pound from my bag.
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