I'm back from Arizona, which was at once thoroughly relaxing, maddeningly busy, and (almost) completely unproductive of Italy trip progress. No, I shouldn't say that. I sent CouchSurfing requests to close to 10 people all over Italy; I highlighted a bunch of Lonely Planet; spent many hours narrowing down dSLR choices, only to decide on taking the parents' super point-and-shoot; spent some more hours ordering a buncha crap online, including Kifaru pockets. Now that they're on, I think it'll work, but it looks....not great. Whatever.
In the remaining 3 days, I have to buy a Eurail pass for city-city travel, lay out all my stuff for real and test-pack, get a AAA international driver permit, book hostels for all remaining cities as most CS requests have fallen thru from non-replies or people unable to host.
***published incomplete after the fact 17 Feb 13***
