On Vacation - Lake Como, Italy

the "road" to our apartment

After spending the day in Venice we did not feel the need to go back into town in the morning so we packed up and headed to Lake Como.  The drive was mostly highway and we didn't have any traffic so it was uneventful.  It took us about four hours which now seems simple after our 12 hour trip to Slovakia last year and our 8 hour drive to Slovenia on this trip.  The girls do well in the car and keep themselves busy with their leapsters, coloring, watching movies or talking to each other.  After leaving the highway at the southern end of the lake we followed the road along the lake until we came to Menaggio and then we started heading up the hill.  We wanted to see Lake Como and have a balcony to enjoy the view so in order to get that in a rental that was in our budget it meant we had to head up hill.  I'm glad we did becuase the apartment we rented was in a tiny village where we may have been the only English speakers.  It was a very cute village complete with farmers and roosters.  It seemed every night there was a soccer game on the the town field which we enjoyed seeing from a distance.  Around seven every night our neighbors were out on the street talking and laughing which was fun to hear even if we couldn't understand what they were saying.  My only problem with the apartment is that there was something there that I was very allergic too.  It also bothered the kids allergies but not to the extent that my allergies were irritated.  In the end it was fine though since we spent most of our day outside.

We usually started the day with breakfast on the terrace.  It was such a beautiful view of the lake but you definitely needed your sunglasses!  In the picture to the left, Ali and Sofia forgot to bring their sunglasses up to the terrace so the picture of them isn't the best but you can see our wonderful view.  In the mornings we would wake up hearing the village rooster and then shortly thereafter we were here the tractor fire up.  The buildings are so close together though that you couldn't actually see anybody from our terrace except for the people in the house above ours on the hill or on the roof terrace on the house below ours.  It was a very quite village so while on the terrace and walking through the village we had to institute "village voice" with the girls so that we were disrupting everyone actually living there.

After we settled into our apartment we headed back down the hill into Menaggio.  We walked along the boardwalk and stopped for some go-kart riding.  I have such fun memories of riding go-karts on vacation that I was excited for the girls to give it a try.  Sofia has ridden them before but it was Ali's first time.  Sofia rode laps around Ali but Ali did well for her first time.  After getting her going in the right direction she slowly got going faster as she went around the track.  We kept trying to get her to smile but she was concentrating so much that she looked very serious.  She did say though that it was a lot of fun. 

After exploring Menaggio for a bit and having dinner we had to stop for a gelato. You can't be in Italy in the summer and not partake in a gelato!  There were so many flavors to choose from but through the trip we seemed to choose a lot of the same flavors..lemon, melon and mint with an occassional variation from these three. After choosing our flavors we went for a walk along the boardwalk to enjoy the setting sun over the lake and mountains.

After breakfast everyday we went out to explore.  We started by taking the ferry to Bellagio.  Bellagio is really very small but by the time we took the ferry there we needed to stop for a snack to power up for our sight seeing.  This was how we went for the remainder of the trip...breakfast, get dressed, head out to destination, stop for coffee/snack, sightsee, then lunch and one (or sometimes two) cones of gelato.  After our snack we decided to follow a walking tour itinerary we had for Bellagio.  Our first stop was to go by a pillar that had the marks of previous floods which we couldn't find so we continued on to walk by the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni and out to the tip of the promotory called "Punta Spartivento".  It gave us amazing views of the lake looking towards the northern mountains as well as Menaggio and Varenna.  There were steps down to the water which the girls wanted to go down and touch the water.  When I could no longer resist myself we allowed them to take there shoes off and step into the water.  There is just something fun about putting feet into a new body of water. 

After playing in the water for a bit it was time for lunch.  Fortunately one of the restaurants that we had read was good was right on the point so we were able to eat lunch by the water.  It was an excellent lunch.  Once we were finished we headed into the town and walked around the few streets that make up Bellagio.  The town is very small so this didn't take long.  After exploring a bit we headed back to the ferry and enjoyed our trip back across the lake to Menaggio.  After a cool morning the afternoon had warmed up.  It didn't make sense to drive back to our apartment for bathingsuits so we let the kids go in the lake in the underwear.  Along the boardwalk in Menaggio and most towns we visiting there are steps down to the water.  For the most part people were not swimming in these locations but there was one in Menaggio that had a couple swimmers so we figured it must have been acceptable for kids to jump in the water there.  The girls were very happy to be in the water.  I wanted to join them as well since it was hot but I didn't think that would be appropriate. :)

We visited the village of Tremezzo and Villa Carlotta and Varenna all in one day.  It was a full day since we spent about two hours on the ferry.  It was nice to be on the ferry as there was a good breeze to keep us cool.  We started with Villa Carlotta which Ali claimed was her house.  We explored the beautiful gardens and then Ali gave us a tour of "her house".  It was cute to see her going from room to room and decided what happened in each room.  She claimed her bedroom but then changed her mind when she saw the next bedroom.  It would be nice if we could give her this house upon her marriage like Carlotta received but for now we will just pretend she already owns it.  After visiting the villa we walked into the village of Tremezzo for lunch and then back on the ferry to cross back across the lake to Varenna.  After having our after lunch gelato and walking around the village a bit, which was a really cute village, we hiked up the hill to Vezio Castle for a bird show with hawks and owls.  It was a 15 minute hike uphill but worth the trip.  There were some amazing views over the lake and it was fun to see the hawks and owl flying around and landing on the trainers arm.  After watching the show for about a half an hour we decided to head back down the hill for a short play at the playground while we waited for our ferry back to Menaggio.

The next day we headed to the village of Lenno.  I think this was my favorite village on Lake Como that we visited.  It was small and not busy with a lot of tourists.  There was not a major road between the restaurants and the boardwalk so it was very peaceful.  We parked the car in a lot across the main road and headed to an olive oil producer we had read about.  As we walked into the parking area there were three giant dogs laying around which I was a little unsure of but we moved slowly until we got to the office and found someone who worked there.  He assured me the dogs were very friendly and the girls were off to pet them while Jason and i decided on how much olive oil to buy.  We had read good things about this oil and this producer has been making olive oil since 1850.  It is also fun to try olive oiles from different regions becuase they all taste slightly different.  After buying our oil we headed down the hill across the main road into the village.  We walked along the boardwalk towards Villa Balbianello (where part of Casino Royale was filmed) but the day we were there you could only see the villa by boat since the garden entrance was closed.  We didn't feel like committing the money and time to see the villa for an hour so we decided to check out the Lido.  After looking at the quite lido we decided we would skip the lido in Lenno since it was more couples and small.  We didn't want to have to worry about the kids making a lot of noise and disrupting people. So we walked back along the boardwalk and found a cafe on the water for our morning coffee/snack.  After walking around the town a little more it was time for lunch.  We went to a restaurant that we had read about and had a nice meal.  Jason had fish, the girls had ravioli and I had a pasta with a gorgonzola sauce with pieces of melon.  It sounds odd but it was delicious. 

After a good morning we decided it was hot enough that we needed to hit the beach.  We went to the Lido in Menaggio.  The Lido had two pools, a couple restaurants, cabanas and a few other sport activities.  You needed a swim cap to go in the pool which we didn't have so we stayed by the lakeside which was fine with me.  there was a small rocky area to enter the water where the kids spent all their time finding interesting rocks and smoothed glass. 

Becuase the lake drops off so quickly the cement wall that meets the lake can be jumped off without touching the bottom.  This is where I spent all my time in the lake since unlike the kids I found walking on the rocks very painful.  Sofia wanted to make the jump from the corner of the cement pictured right but in front of the cement there is another walkway of cement just under the water and we didn't think she would be able to clear it so she swam off the lido in front of where Jason is standing in this picture. It was very interesting to me that there was no big beach area to enter the water.  It just never ocurred to me that the lake would get so deep so quickly.  It is so different from any swimming we did as kids and so different from any swimming we have done in Spain.  The girls didn't seem to think anything of it and were just happy to be in the water finding treasures.  I love giving them these opportunities to see how different things are in different parts of the world.

On our last full day staying on Lake Como the weather was not as nice so we skipped the beach and decided to drive over the border into Switzerland to Lake Lugano.  The lake had a very pretty green/aqua color to it but once in Lugano it is not a cute village but a large city so it did not have the same appeal as Lake Como.  They did, however, have paddle boats that we thought would be fun so we tried to find parking to give it a go.  Unfortunately, we could not find parking.  We kept following signs for parking but never seemed to actually find any so we gave up on the idea of going on the paddle boats and headed to the Migros grocery store.  I was excited by this trip since ever since last summer when my friend Tim brought back Frey chocolate from a Migros store in Switzerland I have tried to figure out a way to get more.  It is that good!  We went into the shop and bought a large quantity of chocolate.  Now that we are home I recognize I may have over done it!  The shop also had 7Up light so I bought some of that as well.  The parking lot for the grocery store require us to pay 1 swiss franc to get out of the lot but we didn't have any so I had to go take money out of the bank.  I went back into the Migros to ask where I would find a bank.  To my surprise everyone that I asked did not speak English.  After being sent to a few different places someone finally pointed me in the direction of the bank which was apparently right next to the Migros!  The smallest bill the bank machine would dispense was a 50 which is approximately $50.  So I went back into the grocery store to spend the money since we were not planning on coming back to Switzerland.  I spent it well and came out with 1.50 francs remaining...enough to pay to get out of the parking lot.  We headed back to our apartment and beganpacking up for our next destination...Piedmont, Italy