Despite what I said earlier, I will sneak in one no-cook, deli-reliant entry.
Visit your favourite - and hopefully well-stocked - delicatessen and single out a few varieties of affettato (cured meats). Most often, I have prosciutto al crudo (Italian raw ham - I choose San Daniele or the pinker parma); bresaola (air dried salted beef), coppa (a sausage from the neck end of the pig) and finocchiona salame (fennel-flavoured salami), razed into paper-thin slices. For four people, I figure a total of 300g to be quite optimal. Arrange them in a portable container, like a Tupperware and you're done.
As an accompaniment, I suggest a simple relish made with mostarda di cremona - whole figs, pears, cherries, peaches and apricots candied and steeped in a fuzzy-heated mustard and white wine syrup. You don't need a lot of it - it is intense stuff. Occasionally you come across the odd bottle of mustard tangerines and quinces. They're fine too. Anyway, chop a few mustard fruits and tip them into a small jar. Add a little of the mustard syrup to moisten before sealing the jar.
Stow the jar and affettato-fed container in a cool place until you want to leave, or overnight in the fridge.
You might want to plump for something fresher altogether: whole fresh figs, melon gondolas and even ripe stone fruit like peaches, plums and nectarines simply chucked in a cool box or Tupperware. A pared-down oxheart and tiger tomato salad is divine if you have access to superb produce.
