I'm going on vacation with my daughter. She's 24 and in graduate school, with a summer break. I'm already going through withdrawal thinking about the fact that I really shouldn't bring my laptop. No, I won't bring it. I'm sure I won't. It's too heavy. Sigh.

I've told all my clients that I would pay extra on the cruise to have Internet access so that they could write to me, and every one of them told me I was crazy. They told me that the point was for me to relax and forget about them. That's so hard to do!

It's easy to get caught up in thinking that there's never enough time, so this would be a great time to get something done. But my mind needs refreshing. I can tell when I'm starting to get bogged down. Perhaps you've had this experience? Have you ever gone on vacation and not realized until a few days into it how tired and run down you had become? I know that's happened to me.

That does it. I'm not bringing my laptop

And with any luck, I won't even miss it.

For you curious fellow travelers or armchair travelers: this is my 9th trip to Italy. You may or may not know that I'm an Italophile. I'm 1/4 Italian, but with a maiden name of Gina Jaccarino, everyone thought I was 100%! My daughter spent her junior year in Rome, and I went three times that year alone -- actually 2 were with my husband. My daughter and I are both fluent in Italian, among other languages -- see the "About Gina" section in the box on the left.

We're spending 2 days at a bed and breakfast in Rome, then we're departing on a cruise -- 12 days, with a few stops in Italy, then on to Malta, Spain, Portugal, France and Copenhagen. Then we're spending a couple of days in a hotel in Copenhagen. I found a great deal on Vacations-To-Go (I don't get anything for this advertisement, more's the pity.)

If you're feeling sorry for my husband and son, they just got back from diving in Belize.