What camera to tag along on my trip..

Yes indeed, tag along, does have a touch of the blase' indicating an incipient and not subtle "I do not care at all about taking photos on my vacation," attitude. I still love photography as it's my life, but there are those times when the camera should take a secondary role. My trips to Italy are such times. I no longer take my DSLR's with a cache of lenses. I only take a point and shoot albeit a good one. The Canon G-11 fits that bill. Its small, so it does not get in the way, it has not to many mega pixels as not to get noisy, the lens is very good and it takes little space on my carry on. I only take a carry on when I travel. In my preliminary encounter with this camera, I have found it to be a competent travel partner. I will have it on hand but it will not be the raison d'etre of my trip. I will enjoy, the food, savor the atmosphere, bathe in the Thyrrenian Sea, converse with my friends and charge up my depleted ethnic batteries. That is why I go these days. If there's a good photo to be taken I will try to capture it but I will not make the "photo" the centerpiece of my travel. Life is just to short to limit it just to photography. Basically , no matter how full of ourselves we may be, we are just picture takers, anyway. Did I fail to mention the relatives; yes I did.