Carry-On Only: Packing Light Makes Overseas Travel a Breeze

FLORENCE,  Italy - We were standing in front of a car rental agency in central Florence on a lovely fall morning. There were four of us – two couples.  We were beginning a three-week visit to Europe that included a third couple. The six of us spent 10 days in Tuscany and then scattered. One couple headed to the Amalfi Coast. Another went to Lake Como and Paris.  My wife and I took in Athens and Santorini, the most beautiful of the Greek islands.

 

As we waited for our car, a taxi carrying five middle-aged Americans – two men and three women – arrived.  Among them, they carried maybe 10 suitcases. Half of them were of the extra large variety - the type you'd see on an around-the-world cruise on the Queen Mary 2.

 

We watched the men stuff the suitcases into a large SUV rental. The effort took a considerable amount of time. There wasn’t enough room. Two of the suitcases settled into the back seat, leaving little space for the women. One of them sat on the other’s lap, and the third squeezed in next to the other two.

 

The scene was so comical, one of the men asked us to take a picture with his camera before they sped off on

 a trip not nearly as long as ours.

 

Had they taken a picture of us, they would have captured four people gloating.  Our luggage – all of it - was sitting on the sidewalk in a small pile. There were four suitcases not much larger than the ones you see pilots and flight attendants carting through airports. There were a couple of small daypacks and a pair of even smaller bags.  Nothing more.

 

"Operation Carry-On Only" was looking good.