I Took Only a Backpack to Italy for a Week

And I actually should have brought LESS.

Ciao!

I’m actually sorry I started this post that way. My attempts at Italian were terrible and embarrassing and most Italians responded to me in English even after I spoke their language.

But I’m here to talk ~capsule wardrobes~ small enough to fit in a backpack for a week-long trip abroad. I’ve done this three times now—for trips to Spain, Cancun, and Italy. And the Cancun trip was for a wedding! I shoved several fancy dresses in there. Thank goodness the hotel had a steamer.

I like taking only a backpack for trips abroad because I’m usually moving around a lot from city to city, and if hotels or Airbnbs don’t let you leave your luggage on the day you check in or check out, you have to lug it around and get in everyone’s way. Hate that. Even though my backpack is enormous, I’d rather transport it on my back than pull a carry-on behind me on cobblestone Italian streets.

So! Before I left, I put together a little list of what I would wear each day and then shoved it all in my backpack. Here’s the list:

I also brought three pairs of socks, tights, underwear, a small bag of toiletries, a hair straightener, and a small purse.

Before I left, I was afraid I was bringing too little. But somehow, I brought way. too. much. Here are the things I did not need:

• One of the dresses

• One pair of shoes (I brought two because I was afraid one of them might hurt my feet after wearing them too long)

• One pair of socks (I mostly wore my tights)

• The hair straightener

• At least one item of the sweat set that I wore for plane rides

That’s a lot of surplus!! Even worse: I ended up bringing a light sweater, too. I did actually use that one, though, because it was a lot colder than the weather app foretold and I felt shivery basically the whole time.

I did a good job documenting these outfits for the first half of the week, and then I kind of forgot that I was planning to write a post about this and didn’t take as helpful of pictures during the last half of the week. My bad! But here’s what I’ve got, in mini travel-diary form. Caveat: all of these outfits were worn with a red coat, which is why I kept them pretty neutral. (I also just like neutrals.)

Day One

We arrived in Milan and went to dinner. Walked around for a long time trying to decide which place had the right vibes, because I had heard that Milan is pretty international and so it might not have the authentic Italian food I was hoping for. Turns out, even if we had just-okay Italian food in Italy, it was miles better than the Italian food we have in America. I wore this!

Day Two

We took a train to Lake Como and it was probably my favorite day of the trip. We ate good pizza, went into the mountains, and rode a ferry around to see different towns.

Day Three

We explored Milan! We did a touristy thing and toured the Duomo di Milan, a beautiful cathedral that was way overpriced. We shopped around, ate at good restaurants, and went to the Milan FC game, which was so foggy at some points that we couldn’t see where the ball was! I deviated from my outfit list because it was colder than I expected and I hoped the pants would keep me warmer than the tights. Honestly, it was about the same.

Day Four

We were deciding between two towns and ended up going to Bergamo. I kind of wish we’d gone somewhere else. The upper city was really cool, but the lower city felt kind of…uninspired. When I walked out of the train station and saw multiple carousels, I knew we’d chosen incorrectly. Still, we made the best of it and I have great memories from stumbling into a “bike bar” and trying the city’s famous casoncelli alla bergamasca—it’s a stuffed pasta filled with ingredients like sausage, breadcrumbs, parsley, eggs, and garlic.

Day Five

Here’s where the pictures get much less curated and we have to use our imaginations. We arrived in Genoa that morning and beelined it for Vernazza, leaving behind the Airbnb of our dreams. I loved Vernazza and hope to return to the other cities that make up Cinque Terre!

I basically only wore this dress because I needed to justify bringing it! I wore it with the white boots.

Day Six

We explored Genoa, and I basically have no evidence of what I wore. But you can picture it: same corduroy pants, cropped black top, and I believe the white boots again. Here’s me just enjoying my life! With pastries.

And the red coat I mentioned earlier. It’s real!

Moral of the story: pack less? This is something I think every time I pack, though, so it’s not special. Basically, I didn’t care as much about ~being cute~ as I thought I would. I was too busy taking everything in, walking a million miles, eating amazing food, and laughing at everything with my best pal and my husband, Jake. How lucky am I?

Anyway, I don’t know if this is helpful to anyone who struggles with packing. Maybe it’s not helpful! Maybe it’s not unique! (It probably is not unique.) But I swear by a backpack for a trip where you’re bopping around to a few places. I didn’t regret packing this way, but my shoulders are a little sore.

Okay, that’s what I’ve got for you! I’ve been percolating on a few realizations about my trip and travel in general, so I’ll likely write a post about something in that wheelhouse for next week. But until then, grazie and ciao and alora! (All the words I know in Italian.)

Abi