Do you know what they have in Italy? Handbags!

My red backpack handbag, which replaced an identical red backpack handbag, needed replacing again. Just like its predecessor, it failed by losing one half of the magnetic clasp. And, well, it was beginning to look a bit ratty.

I kept my eyes peeled for a replacement when we were in Italy last summer, but couldn’t find anything similar. During this weekend’s trip I walked past exactly one leather goods shop, during our twenty minutes of free time in town, saw that they had backpack-style handbags, and walked out with a new one 5 minutes later. What a stroke of luck.

The new bag is a somewhat smaller and simpler model. It doesn’t have the “flap” in the front, which makes it look a teeny bit less interesting, but maybe also more durable. It does have that magnetic clasp for the little closure strap at the top, but I’m thinking that if/when the magnet falls off again, which I’m almost betting it will do, then this bag should look OK even without it. (On the flappy version, the flap hangs askew when it’s not fastened, which looks distinctly ugly.)