As a child growing up in a big Italian family in Brooklyn, Sal Ruggiero`s vacations were limited to car trips to nearby New Jersey, where his Aunt Marie and Uncle Frank lived, or to splashing around in a back yard pool.
When he began commuting to college in Manhattan, his parents could not understand why he wanted to take the subway every day instead of attending the local community college. But the journey into the heart of New York was exciting to the young Ruggiero, foreshadowing a life to be spent jetting to world capitals.
In his job as vice president and fashion director of Marshall Field`s & Co., Ruggiero estimates that he logged 68 airline flights last year in the United States and Europe, staying at each destination from 3 to 12 days. Only a handful of those trips were personal visits to friends and family, and many of them were to France to prepare for Field`s ”La Belle France” promotion last fall.
”I`m a veteran traveler, a jaded traveler,” says Ruggiero, 40, who has been a ”road warrior” for more than half of his adult life. ”It comes with the territory. As I`ve gotten older, I`ve tried to limit the amount of trips or condense them wherever I can. But as the market becomes more global, there you are on the road again.
”When I started working in product development for Macy`s in 1978, I traveled 50 percent of the time to the Orient, South America, Europe and all across the United States. After that, I worked for Charles Jourdan, and I traveled to France once a month. When I came to Field`s four years ago as director of fashion and product services, I did a lot of product development and traveled extensively in Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. I miss going to the Orient now.”
In one whirlwind week while working for Macy`s, Ruggiero traveled to Bogota, Colombia; Santiago, Chile; Buenos Aires; Montevideo, Uruguay; and Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Amazingly, Ruggiero has never lost a piece of luggage and only once did his bags not arrive when he did. ”I guess the key to that is paying very close attention when they put on your baggage tags and watching the luggage go down the conveyer belt,” he says. ”I stall at the check-in counter and make sure that they`re on their way. That gives me a sense of security. But waiting for luggage at the other end is the worst part of traveling for me.”
He usually brings along a Walkman to help pass the time in airline terminals, which, he adds, are ideal places for observing what people are wearing and how they put clothes together.
Ruggiero says he has missed only one connecting flight and experienced only minimal flight delays, even in the Far East. ”The horror story of all times was 12 hours in the airport in Pisa, Italy,” he recalls. ”If you take the train to Pisa from Florence, you can fly to Paris or London. But it`s a tiny airport with no restaurant or duty-free shop to amuse yourself in.”
”Security precautions can be frightening sometimes. In Israel, the interrogation lasted 45 minutes. And they`re doing that in France now, too. When they ask if your luggage has been in your possession from the time you packed it, you begin to think, `Well, I gave it to the bellhop at the door to my room,` and it makes you nervous.”
Ruggiero usually takes a taxicab to airports because he says it`s the most efficient way to get there. ”Airports are becoming more and more difficult for limousine drivers, and the logistics of meeting the driver are just too difficult. You end up standing there with a telephone in your hand.” Despite the thousands of air miles that Ruggiero has logged, he has not conquered a fear of flying. He copes with the necessary evil by taking a tranquilizer after boarding and going to sleep. Before he knows it, the grueling flight is nearly over.
He usually flies business class. ”It makes the trip a bit more comfortable,” he says, ”but the ideal is flying first class and being pampered the whole way. Business class is the trend for economic reasons.”
Ruggiero has packing down to a routine. He has a toiletry kit always ready to go, and he follows a formula of taking along a certain number of suits, sportcoats, sweaters, shirts and ties, depending on how long he`ll be away. Being in the fashion business and a meticulous dresser, he usually takes five pairs of shoes, wearing the heaviest pair.
He always wears an all-black ensemble on the plane because he says it`s fashionable and practical (the spills from overturned food and drink don`t show as much), though as a result at least one flight attendant has mistaken him for a priest.
”When I started traveling, there were two philosophies,” he says.
”Some people said you should only bring your favorite things because you wear them so much, and others said don`t bring your favorite things in case your luggage is lost. I take all the things I like.”
Ruggiero crams everything into two large suitcases, finding a garment bag unwieldly, particularly with the airlines` more stringent rules about carry-on luggage. (See related story on page 39.) He uses a good set of luggage made of nylon with leather trim, but with his schedule, even good luggage only lasts about two years. ”If the airline baggage handlers don`t get to it,” he says, ”the taxidrivers usually do.”
He packs at the last minute and manages to fold his suits in such a manner that they don`t wrinkle much, although he always brings along a clothes steamer. He packs shirts on hangers in plastic bags exactly as they come from the laundry.
”I roll up the shirts and put them on top of everything else in the suitcase, and the plastic protects the rest of the clothes even if the luggage stays on the tarmac in the rain.
”I always pack sneakers and sweatpants and a sweatshirt for race walking. And I do pushups and situps in the privacy of my hotel room because I don`t like to go to strange gyms. You have to make an attempt after a dinner of great sauces and fabulous desserts or you feel guilty when you wake up the next morning.”
Ruggiero travels alone a lot of the time. It`s a mode he prefers because, he says, he tends to become the ”tour director” in a group, and that`s too much like having two jobs.
Being single, he doesn`t have to contend with one of the worst drawbacks of business travel-being away from spouse and children. But that doesn`t mean he doesn`t get lonely. He copes by staying at small intimate hotels or by frequenting the same hotels.
”Nothing is more comforting than pulling up at the door of the hotel and having the doorman say: `Hi, Mr. Ruggiero. Nice to have you back with us.` Or having him say, `Good to see you again,` even if he doesn`t remember my name.”
On long sojourns, Ruggiero uses various means to make his hotel room seem more like home. He brings pictures from home or stuffed toys, and he passes out his itinerary to friends and family, asking for letters and cards. ”When you come back to a strange room, it helps to see familiar handwriting on a card under the door. And I always bring along large bars of American soap.”
When he arrives at his hotel, Ruggiero usually does two things. First, he shops for supplies. ”In Europe, it`s usually bottled water and oranges-and cookies. Especially with jet lag, I tend to wake up hungry in the middle of the night. In New York, it`s usually bags of potato chips and diet soda. I also buy fresh flowers. And then I unpack my clothes to see how wrinkled they are and steam out the wrinkles if necessary.”
”Business dinners” are part and parcel of Ruggiero`s life, but he says he tries to discourage them in favor of something more relaxing.
”I guess it comes from family,” he says. ”When I was growing up, dinner time was always a pleasant, relaxing time when we got together and there was all this good feeling. But when you do that in business, you always continue to be `on,` and sometimes what I need if I can`t have the family aspect is the comfort of my own companionship.”
He often buys prepared food in shops and eats dinner sitting on the floor of his room (”I just chill out and regroup that way”). Though solo diners are a common sight in European restaurants, Ruggiero dislikes eating alone in public.
”Though it`s easier for a man than for a woman, I find it easier to eat in the restaurant of the hotel or order room service. I get bored in a restaurant reading a newspaper or magazine, and I`m not up to making conversation with the couple at the next table.”
When he`s overseas, he keeps in touch with America by tuning in to CNN news on television whenever he`s in his hotel room-”just for the company of hearing English.”
Ruggiero collected many vases, screens and Japanese dolls during his travels to Asia, but now he says he rarely shops in Europe. ”I buy fun gifts for people, but I never really buy clothes. In Italy, all the fashionable stores never had big sizes, and I`m a bit larger than your average European. Also, it`s very easy to get caught up in Europe with the look of the people. So you buy an outfit, and when you come home, it doesn`t seem to translate on the streets of Chicago or New York, and you never wear it again.”
Even an accomplished traveler such as Ruggiero occasionally makes mistakes. Recently, he booked a room in a New York hotel after seeing an advertisement in a trade paper announcing its renovation. ”I thought it would be nice and at a great price,” he says. ”When I arrived at the hotel at 11:45 that night, after rain delayed my flight, the lobby looked a little seedy.
”I thought, `Maybe they didn`t do the lobby yet, just the upstairs.`
Well, the room hadn`t been renovated in 20 years-chenille bedspread, and the lightbulb had burned through the lampshade. When I went to find a telephone in the lobby to call another hotel, I tried six phones, and none of them worked.”
Ruggiero admits that he gets weary at times, especially when there`s little recuperation time between trips. ”I don`t know what the proper proportion of travel and staying home would be for me, but I think if I had a 9-to-5 job, I wouldn`t be too happy. I`d feel caged in. I like the excitement of travel, the challenge of meeting new people and experiencing new environments.
”There`s a cute line from `Gypsy,` where she sings: `Some people can be content, playing bingo and paying rent . . . that`s okay for some people, but some people ain`t me.` And that`s the truth for me. I`d get gypsy feet if I weren`t traveling.”
