Take Five Italian Minutes (Cinque Minuti) For Five Favorites

This month my focus is on travel so I’m sharing some of my favorite travel items, checklists, travel snacks, packing tips, etc. Hopefully, something listed here will be helpful to you now, in the coming months of summer, or whenever your travel plans are scheduled. Let’s start with food – did you think I’d start with anything else? 

Travel Snacks. Food on the road is important whether you are traveling domestically or internationally. Sometimes you are not able to stop into a market or hit a vending machine (ugh, please excuse the reference), but one can get desperate for something to nibble on, so being prepared is important. These posts have some good ideas. Healthy Travel Snacks and TSA Approved Snacks to Pack.

We always pack protein bars (homemade or store bought like Kind Bars that are mostly nuts and fruit), baggies filled with cashews and/or almonds and raisins, and some Ginger Chews (for upset tummies along the way just in case). 

Checklists. Oh, I do love a good checklist! How to Plan a Trip. The website has three different types of checklists, one for international, domestic, and even one for a car trip! You do have to scroll down into the post to find these checklists but along the way, there is a lot of valuable information on planning a trip so it’s not wasted time really. Okay, truth be told, the post is really about planning the trip, not particularly about the checklist. 🙂

Packing essentials. So there are a couple of posts here that I’m sharing just for information – I’m not particularly recommending them per se. This first one is pushing a particular suitcase – so, of course, that post leans towards packing that suitcase. However, there is some good information regarding packing, although the person writing that post packs 4 pairs of shoes for 10 days and I no longer do that, especially if flying internationally. Here is her post How to Pack for 10 Days.

The second post Travel Essentials is a little more practical and I do have and use quite a few of the travel essentials listed in this article such as phone charger, earbuds, travel bottles, collapsible water bottle, extra fold up bag, day pack, snack pack, wet ones, e-reader, and compression socks. There is a short video on Travel Essentials that show how to get personal items into a quart size ziplock that is worth watching too. 

Packing cubes. We picked up packing cubes quite a few years ago (sorry I don’t remember the brand we purchased).  They are really handy for both short and long trips. There are several sources and styles – here are a few to check out: ebags, travelwise packs, or amazonbasics. It makes unpacking in hotels (or Italian Villas 🙂 ) a snap – just take out the cubes you need, leave your clothes in the cubes if you want and work out of them, or hang up clothes if desired, and when you are ready to leave, pack the cube back into the suitcase. Very convenient!

Rick Steves travel tips. Hear me out on this one. His website Rick Steves has some very useful information, especially for international travel. One thing, he has audio tours of most major cities/countries that you can download to your phone before you leave the U.S. For example:

• Vienna: Ringstrasse Tram Tour, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna City Walk 
• Paris: Historic Paris Walk, The Louvre, The Orsay, Versailles Palace, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Rue Cler Walk
• Rome: Colosseum, Heart of Rome Walk, Jewish Ghetto Walk, Ostia Antica, Pantheon, Pompeii, Roman Forum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, Trastevere Walk, Vatican Museum.

There are travel news, blogs, several checklists!!!! (here’s his packing checklist and a large variety of information that is free and easily accessible on the website. Of course, you can purchase his travel books, and take his paid tours as well. Just letting you know, there are a lot of resources available for free.

That about covers the five favorites for travel this month. We’re taking off shortly and those that wish to follow our travels can check the website for my journal of daily adventures. A loose itinerary will be posted soon.