Italy -- packing light - An OXYMORON

"Oh I wish I'd brought more luggage."  A phrase NO ONE ever says when they are in the middle of a trip!

 I was adamant about packing light when we set out on this adventure to Italy. Even now I'm not sure where I strayed. ha! Let's just say that my backpack was Packed and there was very little 'lightness' involved. Who am I kidding, my backpack was Heavy and was ridiculously bulky. Mine was huge compared to everyone's. I did manage to carry it on the airplane but it took a little fandangling to get it under the seat. I had to push and squeeze and step on it a bit to make it fit! Getting it out from under the seat however required an extra set of hands and a few yanks to free it. Once our flight was off the ground I decided to 'rearrange' everything I had in the backpack because I was certain if I could repack it differently it would make it less bulky. And I was convinced that I had not brought anything 'extra' that everyone else hadn't brought as well! So, once we were air borne I handed everything to my sister one item at a time (across the isle) and then repacked everything again. I was wrong.Rearranging things didn't help at all. We (mainly me) had a good laugh about it though! Dear daughters didn't think it was near as amusing as I did. :)

 You know how you hear people talk about passengers on their flights? Well... I was THAT passenger! 

 I will say that the over packed backpack was a constant conversation piece for the entire trip. Dear daughters made sure to remind me that I was the one with the biggest backpack! 

This is my sister, Shelley, carrying her own back pack as well as  mine. In case you can't tell, mine is the enormous yellow one she's wearing in front! This pretty much sums up the entire trip. :)