Lake Como

After a lovely breakfast at our hotel, we relaxed in our room. Then it started to downpour, so we waited out the rain and napped before we headed out.

Amanda had read about a short vertical hike here in Varenna. I was a little nervous about a "short vertical hike", as the last one I remember is going up Wanya Picchu in Peru. It was a bit slippery on the wet leaves, but it was fine. Here's a photo as we started to ascend:



The walk was lovely as the rain had refreshed the village - the air was crisper and the haze was gone. We walked by a cemetery and up into the hills. Our goal was to see a river spout that feeds into the lake. A photo below - apparently this is glacier water originating from the Alps:



Descending was lovely too - here's a photo:



We walked through the eastern part of town and past the Villa Monastery. Here's a photo:



After our hike, I had a chocolate and hazelnut gelato. It really hit the spot! We then walked over to the ferry docks to catch a boat to Bellagio, another town on Lake Como. Here are a few photos of the Swiss Alps from our short boat ride:





I would also like to apologize to Amanda. She handed me a few pages on Bellagio that she tore out of her guidebook. While I was reading, a gust of wind blew them into the lake. Luckily, we still had a map and these towns are small, but clearly we did not want to litter in Lake Como!

We arrived in Bellagio looking for a wine tasting room. We ended up at Apertiivi where Amanda ordered a Tuscan flight and I had a Lombardy one. Between our first and second glasses, two old colleagues of mine, Kevin and Christina who are married to each other, entered the bar - such a small world! I hadn't seen them since September, but coincidentally, they too had seized the same travel deal! Although they just went away on their honeymoon in February, they felt Milan for $400 round trip was too good to pass up. We chatted and caught up over a few glasses and they headed back to Como on an early ferry.

After some Italian cold cuts, cheese, and more wine, we finally left and walked a loop in Bellagio. Here's a photo of Bellagio - you can see the shining lake:



While waiting for the ferry, we chatted with Americans that we had run into last night. They were planning to hit the Expo this week and asked for some tips. We took the ferry back to Varenna and Amanda and I ate at a cute restaurant. I had eggplant parmigiana and linguini with lobster. Amanda had the same linguini and then a steak frites. Here are a few photos:



After a relaxing day of drinking wine and not doing much, we returned to the hotel. I'll say, it was a perfect day in Lake Como!