Ah, Italy! That’s right! I was lucky enough to tag along on a whirlwind business trip to Italy about a week ago! Era splendido! ( I do not speak Italian so any attempts of Italian you see here are courtesy of Babel Fish).
We arrived in Milano at the crack of dawn. Anyone that knows Italy will know that there isn’t much open at this ungodly hour. However, my sweetie, in an attempt to make up for the fact that we couldn’t get early check-in, walked blocks and blocks of Milano with me looking for yarn shops! This is what we found after walking in circles for what seemed like a lifetime…
Do you see the look on my face? Well, it was 8:30am. Even my LYS isn’t open that early! It didn’t have store hours posted so I decided to try another place.
I didn’t get a picture of this one but it is called Nera Toffito and is located at Piazza San Materno, 16
20131. I didn’t find this website until I got back but it gives you an idea of what it looks like inside. Yes, it is located at the back of a lingerie shop.
The lady who helped me initially was the only one that spoke broken English but she got tied up with another customer so her father (I assume) came over to help me. I had asked for sock wool (lane per i calzini) so he pulled down sample cards. He kept speaking to me like I understood him and I would speak to him as if he understood me and in the end this is what I took home…
Then on the way back to the hotel we stopped back by La Bottega della Lana (Via Giovan Battista Pergolesi, 1) and they were open! Again, no English spoken but there is that international language of wool, and I took these home…
The shop lady was so sweet and we “talked” about places in the US where friends or family live (at least I think that is what she said 
)
We stopped by a little cafe for lunch and enjoyed our first taste of Italy. This was the start of a beautiful gastronomic adventure!
That night we went to a terrific restaurant that I highly recommend if you are in Milano anytime…
Casa Lucia (2 Via Carlo Ravissa 20149). We had the best gnocchi and Florentine (yes, I know, we were in Milano) steak was to die for!!! And the atmosphere!!! which is really what Italy is all about!
The next day we took the train to Parma.
This was the first time I had ridden in a train in first class and all I could think about was Harry Potter! I loved the little compartments! The countryside was beautiful! We really lucked out on the weather while we were there. We were told that it had pretty much been raining non-stop for 3 weeks before we arrived…on the train trip we could see the overflowing rivers…and it didn’t really rain on us again until the evening before we left. Not too bad!
We got checked into our rooms and then taken on a walking tour of Parma.
Ah! The stone streets! I just love the them!
Chiesa di S. Giovanni Evangelista There is a great gelato place just to the right.
This is the Cathedral.
This is the Baptistery.
A street in Parma showing the famous “Parma yellow” color of the buildings. I tried to find a website talking about it but there wasn’t one in particular that covered it. Basically, if I understand it right, Napoleon’s second wife, Marie Louise was the Duchess of Parma and wanted to bring a little Versailles to Parma with the yellow paint. Or something like that. Please correct me if I am wrong. Anyway, I thought it was beautiful…my den is very close to this color.
Lookiewhat I found!!
They were closed on Sunday and Monday (FESTIVAL OF THE REPUBLIC June 2nd marks the day in 1946 when Italy voted in a referendum to abolish the monarchy and become a republic. Support for the monarchy had plunged because the king of Italy had supported Mussolini. So hostile was the public, that the royal family was exiled from Italy forever as punishment. per http://www.lifeinitaly.com/potpourri/holidays.asp)
I did get to go back on Tuesday and do a little shopping…those pictures will follow.
That night even though we didn’t think we could eat another bite, we did…of course!!
OMG!!! The food, the atmosphere, the company. THE TORTA FRITTA!!! We chose to eat lunch on Tuesday here, too, just because of those wonderful Torta Frittas!!
Again, Monday was a holiday so we were taken to a castle for lunch…
Forgive me for having a brain lapse here but I THINK is was Castello di Torrechiara. Unfortunately, the castle itself was closed but we had a terrific lunch at the restaurant on the premises. After we walked around the castle grounds and I got these amazing shots….
Prosciutto di Parma (pictured above) and Parmesan-Reggiano are the 2 claims to fame of this region, of course. Basically, this trip has ruined Italian food for me…that is, eating it anywhere else, anyway!
Introducing my “European Vacation Bolero” knitted especially for this trip to be worn especially with that top you see me in. Its the Debbie Bliss Fiery Bolero pattern that is in Interweave Knits Summer 05. I used Plymouth Jeanne. I see getting a lot of use out of this but maybe not for a couple of more months. We came home to some really hot weather.
Parma was so quiet on Sunday and Monday. Our host said that everyone was at the coast. The picture above was of the downtown area on Tuesday when life was back to normal. Check out that huge basket!!
A picture of Teatro Farnese that J kinneared because you weren’t suppose to take photos. This is what you walk into when you first enter the Galleria Nazionale.
This is the yarn I bought at Zuccheri. Not pictured is the cotton I picked up for Margaret (my boss). It was a very nice shop and the first one that seemed to be completely devoted to yarn. They almost exclusively had their cottons out for summer and I noticed that the shop seemed to cater more to crochet, though that might have been a summer thing also. The guy had to run down to the basement to bring me up this wool.
Super cool tourist bag I picked up in Parma.
These are their “area codes.”
This is funny…I saw this bag in a shop and immediately thought…SOCKS, of course. The girl I was shopping with then says that this would be the perfect gift to get for the girlfriend and daughter of one of the guys on the trip (we somehow became their personal shoppers…hee). I stopped and looked at her funny and asked, “what would you use this bag for?” She said something like a travel makeup bag or something of that nature. Glad to know that things have multiple uses and aren’t only for holding travel knitting projects!!!
Our last night in Milano we went to Trattoria Giannino (via Vittor Pisani 6, 20124) for dinner. I’m going to be honest with you, by this time we had almost had our fill of prosciutto and Parmesan and this place offered up some great seafood options!! Please don’t ask me to tell you what all that is, though. No clue!
What was so amazing about all the food and all the wine (OH! The WINE!!!) was that we never really felt full and we never really felt drunk (tipsy, yes, but no hangovers!) because the dinners (and some of the lunches) were HOURS long! Sure, 5 courses but over 3 hours! And we had the tendency to almost order family style…between the 6 of use we would order 3-4 plates and share. It was the only way to get a wide variety of food experiences into 4 days.
Saw this on the way to the terminal in the Milano airport. Don’t know if you can tell but he is made of Legos! The picture definitely doesn’t do it justice!
Finally, on the way out I decided to chance taking my knitting through security. I didn’t see anything that specifically said no knitting needles on the posted list of prohibited items. I got through no problem but I think it helped that the girl in front of me was carrying a knife in her purse and didn’t remember. I got very little knitting done in Italy but can you blame me. There was so much to see and we were taken all over the place by our wonderful hosts that I really didn’t have the time. Besides, I was hanging out with a non-knitter so there wasn’t that inclination to want to sit and knit.
So, we are back home and getting settled back into the routine. Hope you enjoyed my little tour of Italy. Thanks for sticking it out to the end. I know it was long!
