And now, Italy!

Saturday Nov 5

Got here Saturday night and it was raining! Oh well I saw that it will be rainy of an off for the next 5 days. Got my umbrella, my jacket, boots, scarf and hat so I'm set. It was an hour drive from the milan airport, I couldnt see too much because it was already dark. My driver was funny. He was a man of about 60 but want to brag about his wife and his girlfriend. At first I thought it was the language barrier but that's what he said! Made me laugh when he said that religion tend to create war so his religion is women, lol! Oh yeah my first conversation right off the plane with an italian lived to my expectation. That's why I love italian men, they are so appreciative of women without being creepy. If I was young and single it would be fun to travel around italy but since I am not I will have to enjoy vicariously.

Martin arrived from asia on sunday morning. We met for breakfast to chat and say hi. It's my first audit with him but we've met when he was in scottsdale for an audit and talked to me when I was thinking of applying for this job. Nice guy from china. Federico, the 3rd member of our audit team will arrive from germany sunday evening.

It rained all day and I was feeling the jet lag, only slept for one hour saturday night. So it was a perfect day to laze in bed and catch up on sleep. Martin called me at noon to say that he's still sleeping so let's skip lunch and meet for dinner. We walked around the town for a bit and by 6:30pm was hungry. When we walked into a restaurant they told us something about being closed until 7. But we somehow understood that it was closed at 7. I was thinking they are closed early because it's sunday! I've since learned that they eat late here and that restaurants do not open until 7.

Our hotel is great. It's right on lake como and I have a room on the top floor with balcony and lake view. It's so beautiful during the day, also so nice at night with the lights from the homes reflecting on the lake. Como is a beautiful town with steep mountains that end right at the lake. The old part of town was a maze of narrow cobblestone streets, squares and endless walking paths along the lake. and OMG, the shops here are so tempting with the clothes so beautiful and stylish. Unfortunately it's so expensive! Como is a big tourist destination so the price tends to be high. It's now the off season so it's more quiet. It's actually the reason why we were able to afford our nice hotel. It costs 3 times more during the summer.