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Yarn Along- the travel edition

This week's yarn along will be combined with my continuing story of our travels to Italy. Why? Because I did more knitting on this trip than I have in a good long while and because I can.

Not having my international driver's license turned out to be very good for Therese's sweater. Tony ended up doing all the driving and I did a whole bunch of knitting. I was able to finish the body of the sweater and then I was ready to work on the sleeves. Except one thing. On our last trip (that awful trip to Portugal), someone sat on my knitting and broke one of my interchangeable needles. Let's just say that broken needle was needed to complete the sleeves. I also discovered that in Europe it is very rare to use 3.75mm needles. Sure, they use 3.5mm and 4mm and they will tell you that it is not much of a difference when trying to sell you some new needles. But my perfectionist self just could not do it.

I tried using the Magic Loop to work on the sleeves, but found it very frustrating in the car.

After driving through Switzerland and those amazing mountains (literally, for we were in tunnels as frequently as we were out of them), we made it to Italy. It was no less mountainous. As we neared the town in which we were staying for the next 5 nights, we called the owner of the house. He met us at the exit and took us to the house. A good thing, for I don't think we would have found it on our own. He gave us a tour of the property and told us all the little things we might need to know, such as don't use the washing machine and the oven at the same time. I was so mesmerized by the view that I was only half listening to such trivial details.

After he left, we unloaded the luggage and made our way back down the hill into town to find groceries and dinner. We wandered around, looking for a place to eat, but most restaurants did not open until 7:00 and the grocery store closed at 8:00. So we got groceries first, and then picked a place to eat. The pizza was delicious, the wine was terrible (who chills red wine?), and the waitress was not exactly a cheerful gal. We paid the bill, headed back to the house and got everyone ready for bed so we could try and figure out where to go to Mass in the morning. We had originally thought we would drive to Turin, but it was almost 2 hours away and we were tired of being in the car. It was decided to spend our Sunday in Santa Margherita Ligure and go to Mass in one of the little churches.

As for reading, all I read on this trip were travel guides. I liked Rick Steves' Italy best, followed by "Back Roads Italy" as a close second. I really did not find Fodor's book very helpful.

our view from the house

Simply breathtaking, I tell you

The amazing house

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along.
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