Grand Majestic Verbania

... 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 ...

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 ...

... worried it might turn violent, but the man was just escorted off at the next stop. Then, a creepy guy who I had seen when I got on decided it would be a good time to take that empty seat. He sat there and stared at me, but luckily it was my stop so I hurried off, trying not to let him know he had succeeded in scaring the **** out of me. People in trains are pretty interesting/sketchy. I got on the bus back to Dello, feeling so much happier than I had in weeks.

... The balcony where Romeo and Juliet declare their love is a magnet to tourists and they allow people to write and pin love notes to the wall which are cleared every three months so the process can start again.

The relevance of Como for me ended up being from my childhood when Dad subscribed to a weekly series called the History of World War 2. I couldn't wait for each series to arrive and I remember one story of how ...

... featuring some very pretty gardens and fountains. We enjoyed some gelato as we walked along the lakeside gardens. After an hour break here, we took the short drive to Como. Como is also another beautiful lakeside town. We shared dinner and enjoyed a nice conversation with Stan and Johanna from Colorado. We are now in Italy and we are looking forward to the next seven days in this country.

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!

Hello! sorry to anyone who has been trying to contact me in the last few days - my phone seems to get no reception in Italy. i thought it was just Como because of the mountains surrounding it but there is no reception here in milan (I arrived this afternoon) either. Also apologies for any missing letters in this entry. This is the worst keyoard Ive had so far so ill be keeping it short. Capital letters are also a problem, sorry!

Anyway - Como was amazing. i ...

... Italian. Eventually I did return to reality, but not until after we visited Swiss Miniatur and San Salvatore. Swiss Miniatur is more or less self-explanatory, but I will say it was really cool to visit as a Swiss resident. It gave me and my friend some great ideas for future trips in the country. There are so many castles we never even knew existed! They really captured the great sites and monuments of Switzerland, including mountain ...

... Inside the building was a history of the region along with a narrative on the construction of the highways and tunnels up to the pass. Further up the road, and just up the road from the village of Gabi, I pulled off on a driveway hoping to access the deck above a tunnel. While I wasn't able to do that, I did get some great pictures of the surrounding mountains. I again turned off the highway into the town of Simplon. What a cute little town. If I knew how to snow board ...

... 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 ...