Anyway on with Lake Como, we woke up to a huge buffet breakfast that had possibly 30+ different things things to choose from to eat, which was amazing. After taking in fuel for the day's adventure, we headed for the Ferry Dock, and got ourselves on the ferry, heading for Bellagio (half way up the Lake) At first it was fascinating to see all the little villages, waterfront houses, boats, boats sheds, waterfront hotels, but then everything started to look the same. At that stage we were only 30 minutes into our 2 hour ferry ride to Bellagio, so it ended up being a very nice and long ride! Also the weather was quite overcast, so there was not much opportunity for good photos.When we arrived at Bellagio at around 12 noon, pushed for time, we whipped out our cameras like a bunch of crazy tourists, and immediately started snapping away, at anything almost, just to get enough photos of the village in the limited time we had. Bellagio is one of the larger villages on the Lake, but still relatively small, with many small hilly cobble stoned streets, lined with Cafe, Bars, shops, and restaurants to cater for the tourists and small local population. It was nice to just stroll around in the streets, windows shopping taking photos, drinking coffee, eating pizza, and not worry about to many cars. There was nothing very distinctive about Bellagio, there's no main attraction to see or do that you can recommended people to see or do. It's more a place to chill out and relax.
After about 2 hours, we headed back to the ferry docks to catch the ferry to the next village, the village of Varena. Varena had just as many buildings as Bellagio, but everything more spaced out. As we wondered around town, we were starting to get hungry and were looking for a place to have lunch. However at around 2-3 ish, everything was starting to close for the locals afternoon siesta. Oh man, such bad timing, and to temporarily hold back our hunger, we got stuck into my emergency food..... choc chip cookies. The highlight of Varena was Villa Monastero, which had a beautiful waterfront garden, which for €3, we got to wonder around at our leisure. Varena was another typical hilly village and by around 4:30 pm we were starting to get tired and hungry, and thought we better head back to Como, so we commenced our 2 hours ferry ride back. Along the way we managed to see George Clooney's (a famous American actor in case you didn't know) Italian villa, a waterfront property on it's own piece of land. We only knew because the ferry stopped right in front of it for a while, and everyone was out taking photos of it. That weekend, George was home!..but we didn't get to see him, and the girls felt they missed out, especially our friend Lyn, who was so smitten that she called him Georney.When we finally arrive in Como, our quite relaxing day our took a very opposite turn, the town of Como was in full party/festival mode, with life music, food stores, bands, street acts, street exhibitions, and thousands upon thousands of people. Not sure what the event was, but it was a great atmosphere, but being a little tired, and hungry, we had to go look after our stomach's first, and looked around for dinner. We always enjoy dinner in Italy, as it's always cheaper than most of Europe, great pasta & pizza, and easy to drink Italian wine. We settled on this Pizza restaurant, that had the most extensive pizza menu I have ever see, about 5 pages (A4 size) of pizza's. However, we opted for the pasta's for main, and a pizza for entree, and were stuffed!
Wondering around Como that night was like wondering around London, so many people, heaps of noise, street performances, buskers, and music. When in Italy, we cannot go a night without finding a good Gelato, which in Italy generally is very easy (so to coffee). We spent the rest of the night wondering the night flea market dotted along the lake.
The following morning, the weather in Como was terrible, raining! So we caught a train to Milan. I was so looking forward to dropping by this Italian restaurant (run by Chinese people) Lisa and I once at at, which we loved!!!! unfortunately, being a Sunday, it was CLOSED!!!! Disappointed, we headed for the Duomo to grab some lunch, and take some photos of the Duomo (Milan's Cathedral) which we could not get last time because it was covered in scaffolding. We did a little spot of souvenir shopping, and after which we headed for the airport and home.A nice, relaxing, and enjoyable weekend, eating pasta, pizza, and gelato, what more can you ask for from a holiday.
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