Al Relais Campi Bellagio

... from the point there though which was cool.
Ferry back from Belaggio to Como was a lot quicker (and more expensive) and had some great views of the various places around the lake.

Back in Milan that night discovered the happy hour buffets that I'd read about - 6 Euro for a drink and all you can eat.

Buffet is nothing special, but ...

... in a much better mood than before.

The next day I had my Italian/English lesson with Daniela. It was rainy and gloomy and I wasn't in the mood for it-we were going to go to the grocery store to practice my speaking (I was going to order meat for her). Once we got there though it was fun, we walked around talking about items, she was making a cake so we went through the sweets aisle and if I mentioned I hadn't had ...

When I finally found Lake Como (after a train, then a bus, then a ferry and then a very confusing walk) I was surprised that it was so empty. It was raining (I think the rain is following me around Europe) and there was no one about so I was able to do my exploring easily. Lake Como is a very small place with not too many things to ...

Ciao Bello,

We have finally hit a day of rain...so we thought we should stop off at the nearest internet site to say hello. We have visited a few of our neighboring communities in the last few days. Varenna, which claims to be the diamond of the lake, while Bellagio is only the pearl of the lake. No George Clooney sightings. Varenna is a cute and quiet town with steep hillsides and walkways. Bellagio is also ...

... the world as an explorer and mountain climber. Through his travels he had collected art from Africa, Asia, South America and other parts of Europe. The Villa was a museum dedicated to his travels and collections. Very interesting!
Tonight is our last in Lake Como. We had originally planned to stay the last night in ...

... br>
Sue

We transferred from the bus to a boat to do the tour of the Lake. They pointed out the particular houses of royalty and film stars - and how many millions their houses were worth. The views were spectacular, the houses really like castles, and they would have no trouble having privacy, that's for sure! Another wonderfully pleasant surprise! Some have their own cable-cars to get down to the water's edge. (Funicular)

... The weather was absolutely perfect the entire time we were in Lugano and it wasn't easy to leave behind. Every place I visit in Ticino, the Italian region of Switzerland, I love, so I am sure I will be back to see more of it soon.

On Monday morning my Canadian friend left us in Lugano on a train for Milan. I wish him a safe journey and an amazing experience on his first backpacking trip ever, and his first time outside of North America.

... the Gran Paradiso National Park in one of the side valleys, which I visited many years ago and wish to visit again. It used to be the hunting ground of the Savoy royal family, but became state-owned and turned into a national park and is full of wild life such as ibex, chamois, marmots and other animals and birds. We stay at Cogne, almost at the head of the valley (1,500 metres), and once the sun comes out, have magnificent views up the valley to a panorama of snowy peaks of 3 ...

... and mushrooms (Michael). He decided to give mushrooms one more chance, since they'd been disappointing at restaurants so far. I thought the pizza was the best I'd had so far--thin, with an appropriately wood-fired crust, melty but not mushy cheese, and salty anchovies! Happily stuffed, we caught the ferry to Varenna. Inspired by the fact that La Grotta had been open, we held out hope that Vecchio Varenna might be ...

... of minutes found ourselves in the town’s central piazza. It was a fairly uninspiring place surrounded by quite ugly mid-twentieth century buildings, but a buzzing crowd of a few thousand people was gathering to fill it. A giant screen was set up in one corner of the square in front of the municipal chambers, with the building’s frontage covered in its entirety by a large hoarding with the words “Grazie Schumi!”

We thought coming to Maranello for ...