Elena Stresa

... hill to the Volta Lighthouse. If it wasn't for the foggy view we would have had a great panoramic view of Lake Como and it's surrounds.
After walking back down to Como we caught the bus out to Belaggio which is at the furthest point on the lake. Town was completely dead. a couple of cafes and post card shops open and that was it!
Some nice ...

... but it was nice to be able to relax and have a quiet walk around the villages. I needed to take a lot of ferries as this is the quickest way to get between each town as they are all placed at different points around the lake. A very nice place that I would love to visit again in the Summertime.

Next stop is Venice, Italy!

... is that? I'm naming my next dog that, no offense to him, he's a great guy, but I think as an American I could get away with naming a dog that, but not a child) had to work, so they dropped Meghan and I off at a little town called Orta on their way to work. Orta is on Orta Lake, a tiny lake in comparison to the others (Luisa didn't even know it existed), and is also freakin adorable. We got there early-ish, and as we were walking to the center I decided I needed to ...

John

From Venice we drove across Italy to Lake Como which is close to the Swiss border. On the way we stopped at the town of Verona which was developed by the Romans and has its own smaller version of the Colosseum which is still used for opera and musical events. However Verona is most famous for being the hometown of Romeo and Juliet whose love is thwarted by a fued between their respective families the Capulets and the ...

Took the train from Milan to Lake Como - short 1.5 hour trip. The lake is beautiful and there was a speed boat race going on when we arrived. We took the funicular (tram) which has a charming little town at the top and a great view of the lake. We stayed on the south side of the lake (where George lives) and then took a boat north to Bellagio. Quaint town with steep streets filled with great shops. Can understand why George bought a house there!

My friend had the fabulous idea of going to Lugano this weekend and I am not one to turn down great ideas. I still had my Canadian friend staying with me as well and he was ready to move on, but I convinced him to wait until he sees Lugano before he moves on to the next country on his list.

So we made a three-day weekend out of it and had a fabulous time. Lugano is so beautiful! The winding streets, steep hills, charming shopping ...

... 8217;t for the fact that everything was in Italian, it could have been North Jersey.

We arrived back in Switzerland and Lake Lugano around 5:20. We have a lovely room with a view of the lake. The Internet isn’t free here in the room (10 Swiss Franc for 24 hours), so I am going to attempt to use the public computer and upload this.

There is someone waiting for the public computer, so pictures will have to wait.

... the unsightly industrial core of northern Italy around Milan. Continuing on to Modena we got off the motorway and headed for the small town of Maranello and, with the afternoon fast disappearing, we looked straight away for a place to stay for the night. We found a centrally located and quite modern hotel, and the man at the reception desk proudly announced he had one last factory-view room. Now this wouldn’t usually be a selling point for most hotels, even in places ...

... satisfying lunch, we rode the car back down to the middle stop where there is an Alpine Botanical Garden and lookout from the halfway point. We were greeted by blooming flowers and hundreds of lizards sun bathing on the rocks. It was a nice place to walk off the big meal we had just eaten and snap a few photos... At the bottom, we decide to do a bit of shopping for gifts and souvenirs and then found a nice place to have dinner ...