dovima

I will only use my 30" suitcase again when I move house!
Seriously, if my vacation consists of one destination and one hotel, then I take a larger suitcase.
If I'm traveling point to point on the train, it's the 22" Travelpro and a wheeled carry-on.

Intrepid

Well, it is quite nice and takes up more lunch hour time to go on and on about changing the size of your bags and I'm sure it makes you feel just great to know what everybody else does..but this IS about your fiancee and not about you, right? Perhaps it would help if you had HER read the responses or you can simply be passive aggressive about the issue and continue venting your frustration here..we won;t tell her if you don't...Since you've already said it isn't very likely that she's going to take anything smaller, I would suggest for peace of mind you invest in a bicycle flexible locking cable with a combination lock to secure any bags that might have to be stowed out of sight while on the train.
Depending on your frame of mine I suppose you could insist she heft the thing herself but I suspect that isn;t going to happen either.
No bags are "out of the question"..the "question" is, as everyone else has said, or implied, whether or not you can handle them. Since porters aren't prevalent in European train stations and airports, although luggage carts ARE in the airports there and in some of the larger train stations, that may be helpful. I'd also suggest that anywhere you go and there is a taxi available that you spend the money and take it.
Have a great trip

Philly

Request seats 95 and 96 on the ES in 2nd class. 96 is a single seat next to the doors and you can place the largest bag on the floor next to you. Worked great for us on trains from Rome-Florence, Florence-Venice and Venice-Milan. That way you don't have to bring a lock or worry about storing bags b/w cars or rolling them down the narrow aisles. enjoy

bob_brown

I find it interesting that most of the people who takes huge amounts of luggage are not the ones who have to transport it.

They seem able to con or cajole someone else into doing their dirty work.
If my wife wanted to carry 70 pounds of luggage, she could be the one to move it. I don't owe her my getting a hernia!!

My suggestion is to tell this heavy weight champ she can take all the poundage she wants. But, she has to move it, hoist it, store it, and care for it. Next time, people like that tend to be more reasonable.
But if you cave in and let this control ploy work, you will be a pack horse and a gofer as long as the relationship endures.

Now, I will help my wife when it comes to getting luggage off of the carousel, and I will help getting on and off trains because that is a special situation where cooperation is highly beneficial. But note it is cooperation and not servitude. She helps me as much as I help her. I jump off the train first, and she hands me the heavy stuff. Getting on, the reverse is true. I lift it up to her. At airports, I am larger and have slightly longer arms and a little more strength. So I wrestle the suitcases off of the merry-go-round while she finds a baggage cart and prepares to take the pieces as I find them.

In all, we each take perhaps 40 pounds total in two pieces of luggage for 3 weeks including clothes for the opera and equipment for hiking in the Alps.

e_roz

do Not let her bring it! I did fine for 2 wks (with doing laundry day 8) in my 22 inch wheelie bag. Bring a smaller (22 inch is good) wheelie and an over the shoulder if she must. It's not worth the hassle.

johnian

We have a rule...if you pack the suitcase then you carry the same one.
After many years of travel this works very well. Also brought our children up on this...did wonders to curb my daughters belief that she absolutely had to take everything that she owns!
We seem to pack lighter and lighter for each trip to Europe. We travelled through Italy by train last year. It was easy to spot North Americans-they were the ones with all the lugguge that became impossible to manage.

Daneille

Have you considered the fact that many hotels in Italy are located on the first or second floor of buildings - many without lifts or lifts that are barely big enough to fit a person in - let alone a great big suitcase?

I really pity you having to carry a suitcase of this size, packed to the brim with clothes and shoes up narrow flights of stairs - and then your own as well.

Will you be taking cabs to your hotels from the station? Again, beware the cabs are often very small and you may have problems with two big cases - wheeling them from the station to your hotel will be quite a chore as the footpaths are narrow or non existant and it's a nightmare dodging pedestrian and vehicular traffic - PEOPLE WILL NOT GET OUT OF YOUR WAY you will have to avoid them - or wheel your case over them.

Venice, you will be paying to take your luggage on the vaparettos and also the bridges that you will have to go up and over with the bags will really take their toll on your bags and your arms.

How do I know all this? We took big wheeled uprights on our last trip (nowhere near as big as 30x19x11) we have sworn the next trip we're sticking with the old tried and true backpack - no matter how "budget traveller" it looks. I really truly found I didn't need anywhere near the amount of clothes I had taken.

wondering

you may really want to rethink the larger bag...it is a magnet for problems..more conspicuous for people targeting travelers for scams, theft, etc.- esp. in Naples...we had two of the three of us with big bags and felt like sitting ducks. (i swore that my next trip i would carry a backpack and buy and leave clothes as i travelled.) there are so many wonderful lightweight options for clothing that you can really pack a lot in the small carryon. unlike my travelling mates i had four pairs of pants and tops for ten days and two pairs of shoes plus all the the essentials!!it was fine!good luck!

jason888

by350: You have a lot of people's sympathy, including mine!

Tell your fiancee to lay everything she is taking on the bed and reduce it by half.

Then take what she has left and try and fit it all into a backpack.

If she can't do it, tell her to reduce the items some more.

Then buy her a 21"-22", and have her put everything she has in the backpack into the smaller suitcase.

Pack a foldable bag, like a sports bag, into her 21" suitcase. Tell her the extra bag and all the extra space is for souvenirs. Ideally, the sports bag should be able to fit on top of the wheelie, so that it can be wheeled piggyback on the lower suitcase.

Then sweeten the entire proposal by telling her you will buy her one really nice outfit in Europe. JUST ONE! Put a dollar limit on this gift.

Better to spend a few hundred dollars than have a broken back!

AND have her haul her own bag. We're all grown up enough not to use our signficant others as pack animals.

Have a great trip!