I have a very strict rule about travelling light, developed from hard experience when the children were young and it seemed that we were always going somewhere: I must always be able to pick up all of our luggage and both of the boys all at the same time and still be able to run.
It is harder now because the boys' combined weight is well over 300 pounds and also because they vocally object to me trying to carry them around. But the rule served us in good stead on more than one occasion -- most memorably one time in a train station in Cairo when Tris was about five that I still don't like to think about.
So we went off the live for a year on Rarotonga with just one shared carry-on bag and a sock monkey named Jonesy for all three of us. We had basically no possessions at all (Jonesy being not so much a possession as a member of the family) for an entire year and I think we were mostly very happy. We had the sea and the beach and the coconut trees and library cards and a black-and-white cat named Pussy and each other. It was more than enough.
On Thursday, I bought some lovely old bone china tea cups with matching saucers and dessert plates at the bookstore on the Via Mazzini. On Friday, I bought a lemon tree in a pot at the Coop. And on Saturday, I bought a giant green glass bottle for 10 euros at the weekly market in Viareggio. Jonathan schlepped it all the way back to the car, many blocks away, in his arms -- refusing to carry it on his head, as I repeatedly advised him.
Cristina, our Italian teacher, tells us that it is for wine and that these used to be quite common. I doubt our livers would stand for that, but the bottle is a lovely piece of this place and this time.
Jonesy, incidentally, lives with Tris in Alaska now and mostly just hangs out on the couch all day.
