It was an unseasonably hot summer and early fall in most of Europe, as we experienced for ourselves on our September cruise from Bucharest to Vienna. Only in Vienna did we need a light jacket, and that was mostly because it was rainy.

We’re expecting considerably cooler fall weather in Italy for the first week of November.

“Typical” low to high daily temperatures for our destinations look like this:

• Rome (Lazio): 10-17°C/50-63° F
• Naples (Campania): 9-18°C/48-65°F
• Messina (Sicily): 15-20°C/59-68°F
• Crotone (Calabria): 12-18°C/54-65°F
• Bari (Puglia): 9-17°C/48-63°F
• Venice (Venezia): 5-12°C/41-54°F

Checking Accuweather’s current 14 day forecast has our week matching that “typical”. I wonder how often that actually happens.

At any rate, it means that our packing for this trip looks quite different from our September on the Rhine. No sandals, capris, or sleeveless tops this time; loafers, long pants, and long-sleeved (albeit lightweight) shirts layered over camis will be my routine. For Ted I’ll pack long-sleeved shirts and lightweight merino pullovers. It will be cool enough for jeans and a light jacket when we reach Venice, although those daytime highs everywhere else will allow us to be jacket-free while touring, unless it rains.

The other thing impacting our wardrobes this trip is the fact that we’re on an ocean cruise. River boats with their single dining venues are very casual; on an ocean ship we generally dress slightly smarter (“business casual”), especially for dinner in the restaurant (as opposed to the buffet) and the evening theatre shows. Changing for dinner most nights means more clothes than we’d otherwise pack, but it’s only a week, so our carryon suitcases are still perfect.

Here’s what we’ve packed:

Rose: (for tours) 2 pants, 6 casual long-sleeved tops, sweater/fleece jacket, walking shoes; (for evenings) 1 maxi skirt with 2 tops, 2 dresses, 1 dressy tunic (not pictured), flat dressy shoes. Add underpinnings, a bathing suit and coverup, raincoat and umbrella, kit bag and jewellery, and … done!

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Ted: (for tours) jeans, 2 longsleeved and 3 shortsleeved merino tees, windbreaker, walking shoes; (for evenings) 6 shirts, dress pants, alternate shoes. Add boxers & socks, raincoat & umbrella.

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Ted’s extra shoes, our umbrellas, and our kitbags(including medications) will go into our small duffel bag, which never gets checked. Everything else goes into our carryon-size suitcases, which we often choose to check when we have direct flights. It’s nice not to have to wheel them around the airport when we’re waiting for our flight and, in our experience, it’s been during transfers/layovers where we’ve had luggage issues.

We’ll wear our 3-season jackets and heaviest footwear on the flight.

Tomorrow we’re off early, with a 9:00 a.m. flight out of Vancouver to start a day that will involve 13 hours of flying in economy class in order to reach Rome. It will make us appreciate even more our upcoming business class trips.