My wife and I (mid 60s, Chicago area) are in the midst of planning a bucket list safari/beach adventure to Tanzania in mid February-early March and are going to be bookending this trip with 3 days in Istanbul prior to the safari followed by 8-9 days in Italy after Tanzania. It's sort of a complicated trip logistically but we're hoping it will be the adventure of a life time.
One of the logistics challenges we're facing and trying to find a solution to is excess baggage. Because of the time of year and just the nature of the various experiences, clothing needs are going to be different for a safari/beach trip than what we are going to need in Turkey/Italy in late winter/early spring. As a result, we are going to have to pack more.
We hope that we can build an itinerary that will allow us to visit at least 2 and hopefully 3 destinations in Italy--most likely by train. I know from previous experience that schlepping around with a lot of extra luggage can be a major pain. One solution, of course, is to start and end the trip in Italy in the same city (Rome) and travel to different cities with lighter luggage. This was my initial idea.
However, as I have been getting advice in building our itinerary, several people have suggested to fly into one destination, say Rome, and fly out of another--Florence, Venice wherever we end up--to get a richer experience and spend less time on internal travel. This is appealing, except for the fact that it would require dragging around two extra large pieces of luggage that would make it a real hassle. I'm trying to explore all options here. Does anyone know of an internal luggage forwarding service whereby we could send our luggage ahead say from Rome to Venice and have it waiting for us there rather than have to drag it around in our internal travels? Appreciate and guidance!