Seventeen

AQUAMARINE SETTING AND HUGE LAKES
Tuesday was our final evening in Italy and so us girls decided to go out for a little shopping. Akhila loves footwear and I did tell you that I had to drag her away from the place the previous day, but this day we stopped, browsed and bought two pairs and the lady was not paying much attention to us till she realised our keenness and then she told that these were hand mand by artisans out of Portofino leather. 
We then decided to have a coffee with a cookie and the three of us whiled our time, even as people walked about. Lovely. And we crossed the road and as would be our wont stopped at a jewellery store front where there was a set of aquamarine stones, beautifully set. Matina got a little interested since Bruno had gifted her a lovely ring of a similar colour the other day at Assisi. 
We dawdled and finally went inside to ask the price and the guy mentioned a number and Matina said she'd like Bruno to be with her. We returned to the room, only for Bruno to tell her to indulge herself. So we went back to the shop and it was all shut up when we saw the guy and smiled at him telling him we were there for the earrings. 
Anywhere else in the world they would have bent backwards. But not here. He said he was late and could not open the shop. Disappointing is an emotion, but ours was mixed with incredulity because we were offering him money. 
Anyways, we decided to drown the emotion in alcohol in a sea-facing sea-food restaurant. It took a little thumping of table before our drink arrived. Our neighbouring table, the young couple had oysters and then polished off a pizza each. 
We ordered for a Margharita and a Marinara pizza and then a vegetable topped one and don't hold this against me later, but I enjoyed that pizza. We then went for gellato to complete the evening. 
Today morning I did another European thing by sitting in a cafe and having a coffee with a brioche, while the pigeons played at my feet. We then went back to the jewellery shop to pick up the earrings. The guy was happy to see us, but there was a woman who butted in and told us that the guy had made a mistake and that the cost of the earring was double of what he had quoted. We looked at another stud and she quoted some huge amount and included a lecture on aquamarine stones.
Overall it was a tad disappointing, but we cheered up because we were getting on the road again to return to Wepfi, which feels like home currently. 
We drove at a clip and stopped after crossing the Italian-Swiss border. Once again no one asked for our passports. This time we stopped at an Easy Stop, where we paid an Euro for a leak, only to be told that we could exchange that later. Not for chocolates as we thought but at the lunch cafe. So ended up paying for chocolates and bought two unnecessary juices. 
We also got to see several lakes and chief among them and absolutely stunning was the Lago do Como or Lake Como. I was thinking that there would be no need of a camera once we returned but, man was I wrong. 
The scenery changed, the weather changed and we were all feeling uplifted the moment we entered Switzerland.