Peter_S_Aus - I like your packing list! We leave Wednesday - will be in Venice for 15 days - I haven't started packing yet, better get busy. It appears that you enjoy cooking, as do I, and I'm always looking for recipes that use the bounty available in Venice. I looked up "Polpo" - wow! Looks like the perfect cookbook for Venice. Wish I had known of it before - I will be sure to get it before our next trip to La Serenissima. Enjoy your travels!

"So HIroamer, I'd still like to ask what work you need a laptop for? "

How could that possibly matter to you??? Why are some folks so snarky here??

HIroamer ,
Have a great trip! We loved hitting the markets and little food shops in Venice and cooking for ourselves during both of our stays in Venice.

ps..I too bring my laptop on all our trips. Have fun.

Rich, deux majored in it.

Deux, whether or not you think the OP or any of the rest of us should or should not take a laptop or anything else and why is totally irrelevant and none of anyone else's business.

Unless they ask for opinions on the subject. The OP did not.

I do some work on my leisure travels and it suits me to take my usual laptop.

I always take my little Asus 10" laptop with me to Europe. Among other things I use it to do my expense report on the plane coming home. That is a lot of dead time otherwise.

Thanks, all, for your information and support. I don't have a tablet! I love my laptop and am used to it and what I do with it. Not too heavy for me - I intend to keep using it!

HIroamer: http://www.maniacworld.com/internet-bro-fist.jpg

You guys are hilarious. All I am suggesting is a way for HIroamer to save some weight. That is as far as I am concerned a HELPFUL suggestion IF it will work for you.

People do lots of things out of habit without considering if there is a better answer for what they need to do. things change over time and solutions are part of that change.

Getting defensive about what you do is ridiculous.