TWO RUGS!!! We made our first rug purchase! It is funny, Michael and I often think about what we would do with visitors and going rug shopping is top on the list! There are so many different stores that you are bound to find something you love. There is a wide range of quality, anything from machine made, to handmade tribal rugs, to handmade wool and silk, to 100% silk rugs. Obviously the silk rugs are the most expensive, but they are beautiful! Because of their cost, most people hang silk rugs on the wall or put them in low traffic areas (I am sure there are exceptions to this!!!).
So we got many lessons from many different stores and learned all about the different types and thread counts. The rugs all have different designs. For example there is the garden, tree of life, hunters, dome, fish, rug in a rug...etc. I personally love the dome and fish pattern, which is what we bought.
The rug shopping experience is truly one of a kind. Of course it involves tea, and some times hours looking at rug after rug. The rugs are in piles, so when you find one you like, they pull it out and display it on the floor for you. They will pull out as many as you want and do not even frown when you ask to see one at the very bottom! So you look at them, walk around them, look at the back, find out where it was made. Then you ask about price, then you go and look other places and then come back and do it all over again!!! It is quite entertaining! The store owners seem pretty good about reading what you like and don't and are always happy to recommend other options.
We found a silk that we loved, but of course, went to many other stores, and then came back to our original store. He of course remembered us and said he got new silks in since our last visit. And he starts unrolling rug after rug after rug. There were a couple that were lovely...but we knew there was one that we originally fell in love with! So after he showed us all his new silks, he grabbed a carpet and said but this is the one you are most interested in. And amazing as it was, he remembered exactly which one it was!
So we bought one silk rug. It is from Qum, Iran. The really cool thing about silk rugs is that there is a light side and dark side. The hard thing is that you may like a rug one way but not the other. So you spend a lot of time pacing around a carpet or asking someone to hold it for you. The silks have signature woven into the carpet. This rug is a dome design. The pictures above are all of the silk. It is so hard to do the light/dark justice with a digital camera. It may look like we manipulated the lighting, but it truly is the carpet. The picture directly shows the signature.
The second carpet is a wool/silk. It is from Tabriz, Iran. The design on this carpet is known as the fish pattern.
So needless to say, Michael and I now have our anniversary, Christmas and birthday presents!!! If anyone would like to borrow a carpet on loan, please let us know!!! lol
ad it figured out. 
We did go on a standard city tour of Milan. On the tour, we visited churches, castles and theaters. At the end of the tour, we were able to view Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper! 
