The Best Tips for Travel Shoes, Paints and Luggage

I did this painting from a photo printed out from a Polaroid Bogo that someone brought to our workshop. I've got to buy one of these tiny printers, it prints out a wallet size photo right from your camera and the Bogo is small enough to fit into your luggage easily.
This painting was inspired by a question asked by Debbie Reid, about how to think thru a painting. I tried to supply her with a guide to keep in mind as you paint. Together we came up with the idea, of painting 25% light, 25% dark and 50% middle tones. I like how the painting came out painting with this specific ratio of tones in mind.
As far as travel tips: I still find my metal palette filled with 1/2 and whole pans of paint squeezed into the pans from tubes works the best for me. This palette allows me to have almost every color I might need at my fingertips so I can get to it in a hurry. It also allows me to include special colors I don't use regularly but find I may need if a specific subject has cobalt turquoise shutters or something....
Luggage and packing- well I packed all my clothing in 2 1/2 gallon zip locked bags and that allowed me to take far more items of clothing then I normally bring. I was very happy with this system. What didn't work luggage wise, was the shopping I did, mostly at the flea markets and inexpensive markets and shops. I out shopped my luggage size. I did bring along an extra bag folded in the bottom of my suitcase and put that into use very early in the trip. It was way too much luggage to travel around with. So, next trip I either buy a larger suitcase, shop less or do my shopping at the end of the trip so I don't have to carry around my priceless finds the entire trip. Guess what I will do? Buy a bigger suitcase of course! Can you give me suggestions as to what size suitcase works for you? If you suggest a Louis Vuitton steamer trunk I won't consider your option for myself.
Travel Shoes- the best thing I did was to only take two pairs of shoes, one of them being a comfortable pair of Metaphisto walk-abouts that my husband laughs at everytime he sees them and says they look like 1930's football or basketball shoes....I don't care, they are fashionable in Europe and they were very comfortable, and gripped every cobblestone on the steep hillsides I was walked on. The 2nd pair of shoes that was excellent for the trip was the pair of black ballet flats I bought online from Planetshoes.com. They were made by Sam and Libby and not expensive. They fit into a tiny piece of real estate in my suitcase and were multi purpose. I wore them as slippers in the morning on the cold floors and out to dinner flats at night, they could have gone dancing if they'd had the opportunity.
More later, as I am fading from jetlag and lack of espresso which I had in Rome yesterday...