San Marino Como

... 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!!!

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 ...

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 ...

... on the engine, which when your surrounded by the Alps is a challenge in itself! We eventually decided to head towards Milan if we couldn't find a mechanic there then we had probably better try another country.. They couldn't as you probably have gathered, though special thanks go to a VW dealer in Milan who bent over backwards to try and get us the part as he could not weld it, I take it back not all dealers are bad but apparently there was no stock of the part in the whole of Italy and it ...

... I left it at that. Off to the Patheon. We found this building that did resemble the builiding and I have to say I was disappointed. It wasn't grand at all, it was ****. I took a photo anyway and continued around the corner and there sat the real one. It was grand, it was not ****. Anyway, Rome ended up being cool, but Como doesn't feel right. I thought I would love it like George Clooney, who owns a house here does, but I don't. I want to go to Interlaken. Enough rubbish, JOHNSON OUT

... ate some good gellato there. Bars in Italy, much like the rest of Europe, are combined bar and coffee shops. People were surprised when we told them that in the states, bars and coffee shops were two very different entities and that people under 21 were not even allowed in bars. It is actually pretty convenient to have it all in one place. One phenomenon that we need to comment on is the ...

(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 ...

... being told that our hotel was but a few minutes away. When we did arrive we had to admit it was magnificent. The Bristol Hotel. [I just know it had a more splendid name than that originally but it has been taken over by this 'Bristol' group. The name does not conjure up images of glamour and style.] A change of plan. Trafalgar had booked us in to a hotel in Stresa, a few kilometres south. The Bristol was a throwback to the decadence of pre war days. It loomed above the ...

... for jet lag and a sore neck. Also, be careful what you ask for. We made the mistake of ordering a "latte" which of course, refers to the milk in café latte. Lambryne was served a cup with foamed milk only. As I was saying, attention to detail, and one must be specific when it comes to Italians who take their coffee seriously. John and Isabella have carved out a nice life here in northern Italy. Living in downtown Milan during the week and weekending at Lake Como without fail ...

... villages. I took pictures from the bus and am hoping that they come out so that we can share them with you. We simply will not be able to describe the views. Heaven on earth! We disembarked in Tiefencastel to catch the train to St. Moritz. Again, I just can’t say enough about the scenery. The train ride to St. Moritz is indescribable. I know I’ve used the term before, but again it’s true! Riding the train in the mountains, going higher and higher, the mountains ...