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Everything worked out in the end and the flight itself - other than a short half hour delay - was uneventful. Unfortunately, for some reason Alitalia didn't show any movies, just the map of the route with a small plane icon inching its way slowly across the Atlantic. So I read a small volume by Gino Strada, an Italian doctor who volunteers overseas in Africa and the Middle East. The book was in Italian, which was challenging for my rusty skills and my poor husband was interrupted from his reading (a Diabolik comic) every ten minutes by my persistent questions. When he later fell asleep, I was left to my own devices, but I managed somehow. I need to rally and re-commence learning Italian so that our next trip out there will be smoother for me.

Last Wednesday I took advantage of the few nice weather days we had in Italy to spend the afternoon in Como and meet Angela, a fellow knit blogger. You should have seen the look on my mother-in-law and sister-in-law's faces though when I told them I was meeting someone I met over the internet :) This was my first in-person meeting with a blogger and the experience was great. Angela is just as lovely as her many beautiful designs.

We walked around the old town center - I especially liked the ancient walls dating from the Roman era that still surround parts of the city - and then took the funicular to Brunate. This is the view from the funicular. Unfortunately, my camera isn't the best and I couldn't get rid of the glare coming from the glass - still, you should be able to make out the main duomo and the many red roofs of Como.



We then had lunch at one of the many cafes dotting the lake side and afterwards walked a bit more. Before leaving, Angela kindly pointed me towards two yarn shops. Yarn shops in Italy are strange beasts. Instead of a retail space devoted just to yarn, knitting tools, and pattern booklets, Italian yarn shops seemed to be split evenly between yarn, embroidery/cross stitch crafts, baby items, socks, and house linens - making their identification by sight a tricky proposition. For example, I took a picture of the shop window to the first store Angela pointed me to below (I love the honeysuckle vine on the wall!):



Despite not intending to buy any more yarn, I was swayed by this lovely linen yarn (a material I haven't tried knitting in before). I bought just enough to make a sleeveless shell for myself. It's a yarn company (Silke by Arvier) I've never heard of before and is produced locally in Bergamo. At least, that was my justification for the purchase!