Lake Como

Hotel: Metropole
Dinner: Hotel Metropole (The Monday we arrive)
-Dinnner is on our own Tuesday

(Picture of Our Hotel)
Tuesday July 3rd

Wakeup begins at promptly 6:30. I trudge out of bed and into the shower for a 7:00am breakfast. Jetlag has not taken too much of a toll on me, it just seems like usual, it is hard to wake up in the morning. The breakfast was interesting as far as food goes, partially I suppose because they seemed to have a lot of American type dishes but slightly altered. They had eggs, but they were soft boiled (very English) and they served whole tomatoes, and had plates of ham and cheese (deli like) lined up on a plate for you to cut or eat as you like. I grabbed an orange, a tomato, and a croissant, swigged them down with coffee and a small glass of orange juice and was out the door with the rest of the group ready to get on our boat tour in practically no time. The boat tour in the morning took us to Bellagio, a small quaint town at the tip of the southern lake's pennisula. The trip was about 45 minutes, and we had an excellent view of many famous villa's (including George Clooney's) from a boat side view.

(View from the boat)

The wind helped on the trip, and was a refreshing way to wake up in the morning. Plus it was surprisingly cool, especially near the water, so it was impossible to really get warm and cozy. When we got to Bellagio we received our return ticket and had the rest of the time on the island to shop around and explore.
The city itself seemed a little touristy, not really the type of take advantage of foreign tourists touristy but more Italians on vacation touristy. Shopping has never really been my thing, even when I have money, so after we went up and down some of the cobbled streets we decided it was time to head back to Como, so we took the 11:30 boat back.

(Bellagio)

(Something fun I saw while shopping in Bellagio, made me laugh anyway)

The trip back was another hour, and when we had quickly ran back to the hotel to drop of the small purchases we had made at Bellagio, we were out once more to an art museum I was dying to investigate, the Villa Olmo. We saw the exhibit Impressionisti Simbolisti Avan Guardie where some of my favorite impressionists were being showcased including some of Degas Dancer's, which pretty much made the whole exhibit worth it. I absolutely love Degas, he's probably my favorite impressionist painter, but he was far from the only noteworthy artist showcased. Monet, Renoir, Gaugin, and Mondrian where just a few others to mention.Mom flew through the exhibit because she was worried about us leaving our bags with the coat check, but I took a good 2 hours soaking in as much of the exhibit as I could.

When we were done with the museum, we walked back along the edge of Lake Como, towards a lift, the funicolare, that would take us up to a small town high on the mountain. I was a little wary of doing this part of the journey because it was 4 Euro's to go up and down, and I like saving money. For those of you who haven't been to Europe 1 Euro is equivalent to 1.40/1.50 American or more, so what seems like very few Euro's can actually take quite a toll on your pocket book, so I really like to watch spendings, but I'm really glad we took this ride up to the top. (typing this and looking back at this now, I realize how ridiculous my thinking was, 4 Euro's in Italy is actually not that bad of a deal, but you have to understand that's my blood on my mom's side of the family talking there).

The view from the top was really beautiful, and the little city perched on the side of the cliff was so cute! It's not somewhere I'd ever really want to live, but it had such a quaint and cozy feel, I'm really happy that we were able to visit it. After touring the town on the mountain for a while and taking the funicolare back down to Como we decided to hit some of the back alley's of Como itself, searching for a place to eat and for some good stores to wander into.

(On the top of the mountain/after Funicolare)

One of the really interesting things I noticed on our first day here in Italy was how many people mistook Mom and I for Italians. It was kind of nice being able to blend in, since we both have dark hair and the right color eyes, and not being labeled as American tourists (even though we are by no means Italian), I really enjoyed being able to kind of flow with the other shoppers wandering around. Como is not a big tourist city, so having the experience of mingling with ordinary Italian people was great. And I think I might have mentioned this before, but I love foreign languages, and Italian is really a beautiful language. To hear people on the street around you talking with words you don't know, is really an experience, and knowing and learning just a little of the language and picking it up in conversations makes me intellectually perk up.

I wish I was more fluent with the language though, because almost all Italians know English, so when they realize your American they automatically change over, so you don't get really a chance to try out anything you've learned. Well that's all I'm writing for today (sorry it was alot). We have to be up at 6:00am tomorrow so we can travel to Milan.
Ciao


(Sunset on Lake Como)