Although I packed a lot of clothes, I basically only wore two dresses for most of the trip! The dresses were the most able to strip down when it got hot an there was no available restroom.

1 - Black dress, Gap jeggings, MaryK's thermal top, turquoise bag, and Report booties in Rome. Pic taken cycling around the city and along river bike path. The bike path was my favorite part of Rome!

2-3 - AT engineer stripe dress, ON fishtail anorak, Gap jeggigs, Report booties, burgundy bag. Shown in Florence and Pisa. I only wore the anorak to these cities, because they felt the least crowded/prone to pickpockets. In Pisa, everyone lined up to take their "holding up the tower" pic - perverse as I am, I had to take a "pushing over the tower" pic.

4-5 - Same as above, but with Scottvest Trench. Shown in Rome. Pic 5 was from the very first day - the one and only instance of rain on the entire trip. We arrived to blazing sun and heat, so we left our umbrellas at the hotel. When it started to thunder and rain, I refused to buy an umbrella out of sheer stubbornness, but the trench kept me nice and dry. Sadly, though, my pretty citron umbrella went un-baptized.

Not pictured - Black dress with bare legs and black Marcie combat boots, adding jeans when it got cold. Black layering tee under navy turtleneck dress under gray cowl dress under Scottvest with jeggings and Marcies. Citron thermal under gray mechanics shirt under Scottvest with jeggings amd Marcies. These last two were worn in Venice, when I finally was able to bundle up. Didn't manage to take full body shots there, and all you could really see was the trench, anyway.

6-7 - Wore this the Friday before we left for the trip, and loved everything about it: Ink blue crosshatch blazer from F21, white BB shirt, pinstriped Hudsons, 80%20 dalmatian booties, Aida-made UWP necklace, new J. Crew icon trench. Loving the varied sleeve lengths in this, which I'd never have done if I hadn't seen Angie do it (I think her version was with a sweater and long blouse?).

I'm fairly sure that most of the people I saw were tourists, but we did branch out far enough away from the "sights" on the Metro in Rome to see some local flair. Ev.er.y.one. wore a trench coat. Period. It was kind of shocking, and the stores definitely reflected this. I was almost sad that I'd already bought a trench in the US, and I tried on a few anyway, but nothing fit perfectly. For shoes, it was either leather boots or wedge sneakers. I desperately wanted to find a pair of either to take home, but I guess I found the offerings too subtle for me (ha!) and came up empty. Jeans were strictly skinnies as far as I could tell, and Hubs made the observation that "the back pockets on the jeans out here aren't helping anyone out." Lol.

I didn't register much of what was under the local trench coats, but stores held lots of bright dresses and fun prints, alongside pale neutrals. I was tempted by 8-10 in a store called Promod.

I also enjoyed browsing a chain called Oviesse (OVS), and I thought of you all when I saw the polka dot jacquard trench and pants in 11-12. Very nice, but not me.

I was perversely drawn to #13, even though it really isn't my style at all. I guess it had it all: cats, travel theme, and a little Italian passport for the Pilot cat. At 200 euro, it was just too expensive. Also saw #14 on their site just now, and I'm so totally drooling! Brand is Braccialini. I guess this is the "princess" aspect of my fashion personality?

Pic 15 is the one fashion souvenir I've unpacked so far: my little silver and enamel tiger by Saturno. His name is Chiuso, because of all the places that were closed in Florence.

Shopping in Italy really made me appreciate the variety and accessibility in the US. Who knew that I actually love shopping malls? What practical, convenient things! And the stores range so widely in styles. It does give me a bit of pause on SYC. Not finding anything I loved during 9 days of browsing down many many streets did make me realize that finding "the perfect item" is actually pretty special - I should have realized that after all my trial and error with boots and trench coats this year. I also have a BIG hankering for some wedge sneakers! Oof! Once I get my rhythms back here in Cali, I am itching to move on to the phase of SYC where I photograph the whole wardrobe and take a hard look at what I've got.