Park Hotel Paradiso Verbania

... good for what you pay!! And awesome for a backpacker!!
Went for drinks at Frank's Bar which Patrick who owns the hotel recommended. Turned out to be a pretty trendy cocktail joint
where you pay for your drink at 1 place then get it at another. 10 Euro for a beverage no matter what you had so naturally I ordered a long island ice tea!!!

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 ...

... instantly, even though the sleeping arrangements were pretty strange. They have this huge house, with 3 kitchens total, but only 2 bedrooms in the main part (there's a summer house for the grandparents-I did say they were rich right?). So that means that in one bedroom there are two twin beds on the main floor and a loft. The boy sleeps in the loft, and Meghan and I were in the downstairs area. Normally I think that would have weirded me out since I had only ...

... quaint with beautiful villas. We walked the gardens of the Melza Villa. The canons in the photos are not toys....they are from the Napoleonic period...used to defeat Milan. The keys are to the city of Milan from the 1700's.

The food here is terrific. We travel back to Milan tomorrow to pick up our friends and head to the villa in Montanione. Forecast is for thunderstorms...yeah!

Love,
R ich and Kara

... 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 ...

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!

... getting our overnight stuff and some clean clothes out.

To explain: rather than take suitcases, we had packed all our clothes together in a large plastic box with a lid. Great idea, right, as when you have pitched the tent, the box just gets put into it, and all your stuff is ready and keeps dry. However, if you aren't pitching a tent, and removing the camping stuff from on top of the box, then it's almost impossible to get at your clean undies ...

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 ...

... charming centers in Europe. Many of the statues are about love and children. The Villa is situated in a large English park, designed by Giuseppe Balzaretto. Landscape, nature and works of art harmonize in a unique way. Sculptures, trees, exotic plants and the changing panoramic views on the lake and the mountains form a wonderful nature paradise. It was a beautiful garden with very unusual trees, many of which were ...

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)
< br>With Italy to the south, we instead continued east along the Oberalppass. It was fun to drive, though not as memorable as the Sustenpass, and on getting to the bottom at the limits of the small town of Disentis/Mustér I was requested to pull over at a police caravan set up at the roadside. I had not remembered the speed limit outside towns for all roads, other than motorways, in Switzerland was always 80km/h ...