Because It's Better than Vegas

The next morning we slept in a bit and headed down to the lakeshore to check the ferry schedule and eat some lunch. We had plans to visit some of the other towns on the lake, like Como, Menaggio, and Bellagio. After consulting the ferry schedule and the distances by water between the towns, we decided to focus our efforts on Bellagio.

Why Bellagio? Well, we wanted to say that we'd been to the real one :-)

We walked down these steps from our hotel to the waterfront for a delicious lunch of pasta and fish, 

complete with a miniature poodle running around the outdoor dining area.

We got on board the ferry for the short ride over to Bellagio. You can see Bellagio and Menaggio quite clearly from Varenna.

We visited the beautiful and rustic San Giacomo church up at the top of the hill in Bellagio. The baptistry fascinated me.

Little known (or possibly widely known) fact: I am afraid of birds. They freak me out. And yes, I did marry a man whose nickname is Bird. He's the only one I like. So, the preponderance of friendly pigeons made me a little bit nervous. But the delicious gelato helped.

Looking down the "street" in Bellagio. These are scenes that I never dreamed I would see in person--charming shops, no vehicles, and a beautiful mountain lake in the background. By the time we left Lake Como, we had buns of steel from the thousands of steps.

Well, maybe not quite.

Bellagio from the ferry. We left to go back to Varenna after some fun shopping, gelato eating, and sight-seeing. The tower of San Giacomo is on the right. 

 

We arrived back in Varenna just ahead of a mountain thunderstorm. The thunder echoed through the mountains as the lake became choppy and gray. The boats bobbed up and down on the waves. The wind refreshed the air. And we set up at our cafe and watched the rain. Oh, and we ate.

 

And then the rain stopped, the calm, clear lake returned, and evening fell. We walked around a bit, up to the train station to figure out the plan for the next day. We found the ticketing area at the train station, decided what time we would head that direction the next day, and then headed back down to the water's edge to walk around. We sat down at our other cafe, had dessert and wine, wrote in my travel journal, and a great talk. By the time we were paying attention again, we realized that it was midnight and we were the only people left at the cafe, which closed at 1 a.m. So we packed up quickly and walked along the lake and up the hill to our hotel room.

And our still soaking-wet clothes. Which we proceeded to dry with the hotel hairdryer. Unsuccessfully.

Up next: Will they make their train? How many Australians will they meet? Will their clothes EVER dry? Stay tuned!