He who would travel happily must travel light

We're well within a month of leaving for our trip! (I was going to add more to that sentence but even just that bit excites me!)Since the day we started planning on going and realizing that to go on a 12 day cruise we'd need to be gone for 18 days I've been pondering how I'm going to pack for 18 days in one suitcase. So instead of packing like I normally do which looks a lot like this I have to choose one. Normally I pack everything so we're prepared for rain or shine, sun or snow. This trip is different. I don't have that luxury. But, I have to pack day clothes for sightseeing and evening clothes for dining for 14 of the 18 days we'll be gone. And, it's not like we're going to countries where people just put on whatever is closest to their hands, we're talking Italy and Greece, both very fashionable. So tennis shoes every day won't work either! So, last night I took everything I was planning on packing and did a dry run. I jammed formal dresses and all into one 26" suitcase and miraculously it all fit! I won't tell you I was a little more than surprised to see there's even a little extra room for things that I may have forgotten or pick up at a last minute sale before we go. Most of our focus during free time lately has been to look up port information and train schedules and learn what not to do while being gone and learning all three languages (Italian, Greek, and Turkish) at once. To save more and try and get a little more adventure out of our trip we haven't scheduled any tour guides. I've been researching things to do at port and picking up any other bits of advice people are handing out and writing all of them down to take with us when we go. So far, typed, I have about 25 pages of notes and maps and I haven't even started typing my notes for Turkey yet.

I'm hoping all this falls into the packing light category, as I am leaving the kitchen sink this one time.