While preparing for my trip last May, one of the most common topics to come up in the countless “what to pack” lists was how to store your money. The standard “family trip to Italy” brand of advice was for the under-the-clothes money belt. This also struck me as a dead giveaway of one’s helpless tourist status, which, in my mind, is a far more attractive target to the world’s criminals than other less paranoid means of concealment.
On the other hand, I didn’t want to carry around a wallet in my back pocket, as such things tend to fall out or mysteriously vanish, as nearly happened to me in the train station in Skopje when a nimble-fingered kid tried to snatch my precious money supply after watching where I stowed it when buying a train ticket.
Another common problem I had, being a writer and apt to forget ideas if I didn’t record them immediately, was not having an easily accessed journal or notebook to write things down in. The solution to all of the above: the Moleskine wallet. No, Moleskine doesn’t actually sell a wallet–but all of their pocket-sized notebooks have a pocket on the back cover that works just fine for it. They do tear easily, so you’ll have to reinforce it with tape, but once you get used to it you’ll never go back.
My personal preferred favorite is the squared soft cover notebook
