You have learned your lesson from past trips: pack lightly, start early. 

The past week has been one of packing and unpacking, rearranging and folding.  Your bed has been strewn with dresses and skirts and leggings in an attempt to find a traveling wardrobe that is a unique combination of simplicity, style, and comfort. 

You wistfully think of the giant trunks Barbara Stanwyck traveled with in The Lady Eve or those boxes upon boxes that Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe tow around in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  These ladies have their arsenal of beauty concoctions and a wardrobe full of fashionable travel ensembles.  Yes, that is the romantic notion of travel, always perfectly quaffed and ready for cocktails on the deck as your cruise liner takes you to your exotic destination.

Yet as much as you enjoy that happy vision of travel, you are not so taken with it that you lose all sense of practicality.  No, you will stick to a wardrobe of tunics and leggings, walking shoes and plenty of room for souvenirs.  It is a treat to take your small suitcase from one stop to the next--never wasting time on lugging steamer trunks about, but simply gliding from one place to the next with ease.

This is your preferred way to travel for all your fanciful musings on your silver screen ladies.  As you fold your last tunic into your luggage, you think of your upcoming trip: a Gaudi-feast in Barcelona, days roaming the streets of Paris, high tea in London, leaving plenty of room in your day and your suitcase for experiences and mementos.

Yes, it is nice to travel light.