I lost my Tower!

Oh, woe! I've lost my silver Leaning Tower of Pisa charm! I bought myself two nice souvenirs, and that was one of them. The clerk put it in a very lovely little red envelope. Which we then used for the camera memory card when we bought a new one (because although the hubby assured me we had plenty of space on the memory card, once we got to Italy and his inner artiste took over, it turned out...not so much). I put the charm in an empty zipped pocket of my purse. I remember seeing it there. Then I did something with it when we got back to the hotel and I forgot all about it until I remembered my charm bracelet this morning.

And now...I can't find it. I think I put it in one of the little bags that had a magnet in it. But my mind has gone totally blank. I have taken all the little bags out of the recycling bag and searched them. Three times, the last one tearing them apart. One had a hole in it, so...maybe it fell out? I shook out all the clothes. I search my husband's suitcase, the camera case, the little red envelope with the memory card inside.

Nada. Nothing. Zip. My Tower has gone astray.

So, note to future travelers: be careful when repacking small objects. And maybe make notes for future reference. And take along a larger capacity memory card than you think you'll need.

Now, on a better note, and speaking of packing, I did a couple of things right this trip.

See that little black purse? If you've seen me at a conference, you may recognize it. It's great for trips, because while it's small, it's square, so it's large enough for a passport, change purse, glasses case, pack of tissue, lip gloss and Advil (which I am never without when I travel). It has a three-compartment front pocket, including one that zips completely around, so you don't have to go fishing for your wallet in the main part when you want to buy, say, a tacky fridge magnet or some gelato.



Here it is close up.











The other thing I did was take that pink scarf. As you can see from this close-up, it's quite wide. It's also fairly fine, made of some kind of cotton and I think I paid about $5 for it on sale. Here's the thing: it could be a scarf, a head covering, a shawl and, in a pinch, a hand towel. As you'll see from pictures to follow, I found a lot of different ways to wear it. In fact, at the end of the trip, one of my fellow travelers commented on that - he wondered how many scarves I'd brought! Just two, I explained - this one, and a square one I wore precisely once.

Here's what I mean:











Wondering if I'm going to show pictures of the famous sites? Oh, you betcha! As I said, we took a ton. But just FYI, these scarf pictures were taken in this order:
Rome, Castel Gandolfo (the Pope's summer residence), Monte Cassino, Pompeii, Capri, Florence, Verona and Venice (on a gondola).