After reading so many posts about jeans, etc., I was curious about what I would find with respect to clothes on my almost three week trip to Italy, from which I returned on Monday. I'd say about fifty percent of the Italians I saw, from Lake Como to Florence to the Amalfi Coast to Rome, were wearing jeans, usually dark blue. Maybe there weren't that many sneakers (though there were a few), but jeans and casual clothes (few shorts, but then it wasn't that warm) were everywhere. I had lunch at the Villa d'Este and at Il San Pietro. Jeans and shorts were there, too, though the shorts wearers may have been American. So my advice is don't look like a slob but be comfortable and don't worry about it too much.

Sandra, you would be treated differently in your preppy attire in Paris... that Land's End/Dockers look screams tourist just as much as white sneakers, baseball caps, etc. that others mention. Black or dark colors work because they don't show dirt when you pack light & wear the same outfits over & over. No one said you had to wear a beret and smoke cigarettes, simply to wear less obviously American attire, in order to smoothly move thru a new and foreign environment.

Oh, just to get this back on track: lets all repeat ... B, B, and more B. Oh, by all means, let the fast ones help the slow ones.

Sandra, someone should force you to wear a chic little black boned strapless dress! With little pointy heels!<BR>You are a silly woman from reading your post, no one is saying what you have to wear, and really no one here is trying to fit in. Just saying to dress stylish if so inclined, and you seem to at least think about what you look like. <BR>Jeans can look very different on different people, I bet the Europeans you saw in jeans were thin and wore stylish shirts or sweaters and shoes with the jeans. <BR>Someday go to a Walmart in the outskirts of your Conn. township and see what other people that aren't preppy look like in jeans. Look from the rear, if possible, and gasp.

I like to look as good as I can at home and when I travel. I buy good clothes for my figure, the most expensive I can afford, and good shoes that feel great. I have my hair cut the way it flatters me and I color the grey. I wear makeup and get manicures and pedicures. I like to feel that I look my best and when I catch my reflection in a window or mirror, I want to admire how I look, not flinch. Does this make me vain? <BR>I don't think so, alot of us care what we look like, and many of us don't. To be sloppy doesn't make you more intelligent, but some of you seem to think so. <BR>

Nothing brings out the travel snobs like a post about what to wear in Europe. It's this simple: don't dress sloppy and don't wear things with USA plastered all over it. That's it. If you walk around Paris wearing new blue jeans and white sneakers, you're not going to stand out like a sore thumb. So people may identify you as a tourist. Who the hell cares? You think your clothes are going to hide that fact? I love watching these American tourists walking around in all black from head to toe while speaking broken French, taking pictures, and gawking at tourist sites. Oh yeah, fooled us!!! Good God, people. Dress neatly and don't worry about your shoes or colors. Enjoy your trip without walking around stressing about what you're wearing. You ARE a tourist, and nothing you can wear is going to hide that fact.

This post is a perfect example of why many of the regulars no longer give the excellent travel information that was once available. What can you pick your own clothing. When someone pay's for my travel they can then pay for my cloths. Really, I believe the majority of posters cannot be true travels and wear the stylish cloths and shoes they profess they wear. I am so fed up with clothing posts and meatheads who continue to ask about jeans and tennis shoes.

Grazie, Lea. That was very gracious of you. I will continue to wear what I want, including jeans, and, just for you, I'll even change my underwear once in a while. :)<BR><BR>By the way, *I* never cared for the so-called "grunge" look (or music) that was so popular here in the Pacific Northwest in the early-to-mid '90s. Flannel shirts, shorts, backwards baseball caps, and thrashing distorted guitars are not my cup of cappucino.<BR><BR><BR>Bravo, Dina! Very well said. Just like with food, what we each define as "good", or appropriate, dress varies from person to person. <BR><BR><BR>Elvira, I agree with you that I don't see looking good (what you refer to as being "dressed up") and being comfortable as mutually exclusive. The issue, however, is that we all have our own definitions of "looking good." Personally, I think jeans look good on me (and most other people) and I also find them extremely comfortable, whereas you don't find them comfortable so, even if you thought you looked good in them you, quite understandably, wouldn't wear them. The reason I like black jeans is that they have the comfort of jeans but are, IMO, just a little dressier than blue jeans (for those times when you want to be just a bit dressier.)<BR><BR>It's interesing to hear you write that a man in a business suit can set your heart a-poundin'. That's fairly common for a lot of women. For most men, on the other hand, it's not suits (which are essentially status/power/wealth indicators) or uniforms on women which get our hearts a-poundin'. Instead, of course, it's revealing clothing. Women like men in ties; men like women in heels.

tommy, dear, why don't you avoid the "clothing" posts and save yourself needless hassle? Is some big, meanie forcing you to read them?