From motorcycle clothing to the laptop to to phone adapters to locks and alarms, here's the gear.

Motorcycle Gear & Clothing

So far I love teh Olympia Moto Sports Mustang Jacket & Jeans. They're cool in both ways - keeps the air flowing and they look cool, too, turning heads even here in fashion-conscious Italy with its khaki/peal fabric of Dupont Cordera. I've found out too that it's water resistant, yay! And without the removable pads they're good to go as street clothes.

The Specter Road boots also weathered a rainy day and they took me walking around Venice two days looking pretty sweet with black tights and a miniskirt. What's more to want?

Computer

My old reliable iBook is my on-the-road buddy - sturdy, reliable, and recently loaded with Tiger OS X as well as all the applications I need to create online dispatches - Dreamweaver, Photoshop, FTP, iMovie, iPhoto. It's got a wireless card, and it converts automatically from 110 to 220.

Check it out. This is my newest, coolest little gadget, a USB 2.0 Hi-Speed flash drive. SanDisk says that it's designed to withstand harsh working environments and operating conditions; that it's virtually indestructible, featuring a titanium-coated metal casing for unprecedented durability; and that it's one of the fastest USB flash drives on the market (a write speed rating of 13 megabytes (MB) per second and a read speed of 15MB per second). CNET reviewers gave it a 9.0. I bought it for just shy of $50 searching for the best deal on PriceGrabber. I've wanted to use it to back up between uploads, and also to grab photos iBook when I want to transfer data to someone else's computer or from my camera to a computer. So far Italian computers are old style - not USB.

Cameras

Nothing new here. This is the same camera I've been using and touting for years, an Olympus Camedia - my latest is the C-5050 Zoom. I have long recommended this camera for its ease-of-use and reliably great photos when I set it on "automatic." I love that. It plugs into my iBook and iPhoto launches, grabs them, and I can look through the thumbnails, do some light editing, and use or send them. For heavy photo editing I use Adobe PhotoShop 8.

My Olympus Camedia takes 4 plain AA batteries, which was one of the biggest selling points for me. (Where don't they sell AA batteries?) But I use longer-life rechargables. Their recharger holds four batteries and works with 110 and 220.

Nothing new here, either. I've been using the same Sony Digital Handycam for three years, now. The DCR-PC9 NTSC. It's small and unobtrusive and easy to use and I have a big 8-hour battery for it that means I won't run out of juice when that cinematic moment finally comes. iMovie on the Mac makes it pretty easy to grab quick scenes to post on the web. An oldie but a goodie, you can probably find one for cheap on eBay by now.

The digital video has a big, bulky recharger - almost bigger than the camera itself, which makes it a pain. But it also automatically converts to Euro-voltage. And I bought a big 8-hour battery a long time ago, so I can probably just keep the charger in the bottom of my duffel.

Don't forget an extension cord if you've got multiple devices to charge! I pack a plain extension with 3 sockets and plug in my computer, AA battery chargers, and vido battery charger.

Security

Here is a real tried-and-true traveling companion. I found this nifty device when I was reviewing travel gear for PC World Magazine ages ago. The Targus DEFCON 1 ULTRA is a computer lock, a gear lock and optionally, a motion activated shrieker. It has a combination lock with up to 10,000 unique combinations and a high decibel alarm triggered if the cable is severed or the motion sensor is activated (you set this option). The cable you see protruding from the device curls around and locks into the other side. I hang it from hotel doors and set the motion sensor, or wrap it through camera bag and suitcase straps and handles. This is my favorite never-leave-home-without-it gadget.

Wall & Phone Plug Adapters

TeleAdapt has been a favorite travel supplier with everything you'll ever need to plug in all over the world. I already have phone and wall plug adapters for Italy, but Greece has its own set of prongs and wires to deal with. Albania is also unique. Grouped together are Croatia, Serbia-Montenegra and Bosnia-Herzogovina. Here's what I'll have to pack for my trip:

Telephone Plug Adapters
	Italy Oh joy. Italy has not one, but two kinds of telephone jacks: new (left) and old (right). So far I haven't needed any of them - using DSL connections in Internet cafes.
	Albania Albania is on the same telephone system as Russia and Poland.
	Croatia & the former Yugoslavia In Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia-Montenegro, and Slovenia I'll need to use this angular device.
	Greece Greece has its own system, not shared by any other European country.
Wall Plug Adapter
	Europe (except Italy) All the countries (except Italy) I'm visiting require a single type of wall plug adapter. I'm also packing an extension cord and a 100 watt step-down transformer.
	Italy Italy! They've just gotta be different.

Transformer

I did not take the 100 watt grounded step-down transformer, designed for continuous use with 110-120 volt electronic, motorized, or heating appliances with a wattage rating of 100 watts or less. It was just too bulky. It converts 220 volts to 110 volts, which is nice when you're bringing along equipment that doesn't automatically adjust. It only weighs about a pound and you can plug it into the wall (using one of the wall plug adapters pictured above) and then plug in your extension cord, from which you can then plug in your equipment, chargers, etc., like a digital video camera, battery charger, cell phone charger, even the laptop (though most work with either system). See my column Plug In To Europe for more info.

Immersion Coil Water Heater

Just plug this baby in and you've got hot water in just a minute or two.

Internet

When I travel I use an Earthlink account so I can get email when I'm using a dial-up connection on my laptop, or using their browser-based email in an Internet cafe. My iBook has a wireless card so I can also pick up connections that way. I always pack an Ethernet cable, too, so I can hook up to high-speed Internet. That usually covers it! When I leave for a long time - as on this trip - I don't even check my normal email account - I get much too much spam and don't want to waste valuable time downloading that, even though I do have filters that sort out the junk mail. During this trip I'm using this email address. And I've encoded it so that web crawlers can't collect the address and send me spam. You might want to do that, too, if you're publishing your email address on your website or weblog. Here's my favorite email address encoder.

Just in case I can't upload dispatches to this site, I will post to my browser-based weblog at Typepad, which I highly recommend for it's ease-of-use and customization features. I may also upload photos to oFoto.

Camping

• Bibler Ahwahnee Tent: I love my Bibler tent and I use it for backpacking, bicycle touring, and motorcycle touring. It's extremely expensive but worth every penny...extremely light, extremely sturdy, extremely windproof, extremely roomy, extremely quick and easy to set up and no rain fly necessary. I've packed it in to the Desolation Wilderness (near Lake Tahoe) and to Burning Man and beyond.
• ThermaRest full-length self-inflating sleeping pad. One word: indespensible.
• Sierra Designs Cloud 9 Women's Flex sleeping bag. It lets me toss and turn and the stretchy stuff stays with me instead of knotting up in weird places.
• Various cooking gear including an MSR stove and camp lantern.
• Flashlight, matches, and groceries picked up on the road.
• Eye mask and ear plugs!

More Info

There's lots more information in my Gear & Gadgets column in the Wild Writing Women magazine:

• Plug In To Europe: All about adapters for wall plugs and telephones, transformers, and more, for Europe.
• Creating an Online Travelogue: In this column I talk about what hardware and software it takes to create a travelogue on the road.
• Navigating Europe: A round-up of maps, GPS hardware and software, what it takes to get around.

Complete Packing List