Lake Como and Bellagio (the Real one, not Vegas version)

Back to Milan Centrale, the most hateful, disorganized, and filthy place on earth, to get a train to Como. Here's Ralph being 'handled' after we arrived on the train in Como. We were told that there wasn't much to do in Milan and to get up to the lake region to see it and we weren't sorry.

It was a very misty day so the pictures all look like I took them through cheesecloth, but every scene was beautiful. I had no idea of the size of the lake or that the ride from Como to Bellagio took an hour on the fast boat. We spent most of it standing in the open back with 'the kids' and the Pakistanis. Ralph figured they were a team of computer engineers heading up there to fix things.




Here's some Lake Como Ducks that show how clean the water is up there. Our boat 'broke' for the way back so we had to wait an additional 2 hours for the repairs so we went to an outdoor cafe and had the worst pizza ever! It was the same frozen pizza I used to give the kids for dinner on nights we were going out- I guess this was payback.

By the time the 'broke boat' eventually did get back to Como, then the walk through the city to find the train, then the commuter train back to Milan where we ended up in the wrong station and then had to take a cab... we were too tired to find another cab to get back to that great trattoria. Instead, back to the vodka tonics and a wonderful walk down the street/alley behind the hotel, Via Spigia, where all the finest shops are in the city. Ralph is no dummy- he only let me know it was there after all were closed. Our last night in Italy, sigh. When we got back to the room there were candles burning on our nightstands and in the bathroom! Can you imagine that happening here? Scary.