Lake Como

James is leisurely reading while letting his small pox vaccine air out, so I decided I write a little. That way I don' t have to take time to do it later...at home. I have the time now, so why not. We are at Lake Como, in the little town of Mezzegra. It is a quite sleepy town, with no bank. We are staying on the main square at a family run Bread and Breakfast- which is awesome. The room isn't much- no sitting area, bathrobe and slippers like Venice, but enough. A bed, a clean bathroom, and a gorgeous view. The cafe downstairs has AMAZING gelato- creamy!

We arrived after a LONG drive. The GPS decided to take us up to the middle of the lake and have us get to our B&B by riding the ferry across the lake. Wrong. So we had to "re-calculate". Seriously, everywhere we go the GPS decides to take us the longest route possible- it's always beautiful, but slow and irritating. Especially when we know there is a highway paralleling us...But we finally arrived to our little B&B and we started to wander. We found ourselves winding down this tight little alley that opened up onto the water...and a massive swan. James screamed like a little girl...well not really, but he was definitely startled. It was huge and we definitely spooked her.

We continued wandering, looking for food- because we were staving and always poorly plan trips around eating. We stumbled upon this hosteria that was still serving sandwiches and wine. House wine was the bomb.com. Bruschetta- melted in your mouth, sandwich, on homemade bread. It was a little gem. Plus we were sitting right on the water. Can it get any better? We also went back to have dinner at this place a couple hours later-once again the food was outstanding. And the waiter remembered us!! The town really didn't have much going on- definitely a sleepy little town, luckily for us, we were exhausted so started to watch a movie, but clearly passed out instead.

The morning was lazy. We took our time getting ready. Ate a leisurely breakfast of fresh croissants, cappuccinos, yogurt, and cereal. Then made our way to Villa Balbianello. It was so close!! This villa sits out on a peninsula that juts out from the west bank of the lake. We wandered around the garden and took an hour and half long tour of the house. It was awesome. The last man to own the villa, Monzoni, was incredible- his family, very wealthy from starting the first department store in Italy, provided him the financial security to literally go on expeditions for the majority of his life. His villa was a work of art- filled with beautiful glass paintings, stunning chandeliers, artifacts from all over the world, and documents of his travels. His 2 most famous travels included the North Pole and hiking Everest. He was the first Italian to make it to the top of Everest...even though he really stopped 200meters short...but I didn't mention that to the tour guide...that is technically not summiting the mountain. Details. The Italians were still very proud of him- and rightfully so.
We at lunch at a restaurant on a beach- literally, there were people sunbathing on the man-made beach. We sat on a bench, with a mini table in front of us- it actually came up to my shins- and ate salads. Well, I thought I was getting a salmon sandwich, when in fact I was getting raw salmon with buttered bread on the side. This is the THIRD time I have made this menu mistake on our travels. THIRD. Why have I not learned? Luckily, it wasn't bad and I still ate it.

We hurried back to the hotel to gather our thoughts and things- James had been suffering from a headache all day so far, so the daughter of the family-run B&B gave us some "medicine" from her house. She was so nice to offer us some of her medicine and even offered to go into the next town to get some more...if only I had said yes. Not exactly sure what it was, but worked for a bit.

The rest of the afternoon didn't go as planned. We had wanted to hop on a ferry to go to Bellagio, but instead, we couldn't find parking, couldn't find a bank to pull out money, and ended up driving up the west bank of the coast through several more little towns. The drive was well worth it...if only we had our Sunday convertible to drive with the window's down. We went back to the hotel and walked into Tremezzo, the next town, and hung out in beautiful garden- James climbed trees, walked around a little market, and once again ate on the side of the lake.

Unfortunately, James was up the entire night with a migraine. So far, aside from my Chick-fil-a cravings and a drive-through Starbucks latte withdrawals this was the first time I had missed America. Truly missed the 24hr drug stores, accessible banks, and stores that are open on Sundays. I felt so helpless! These towns around the lake are not big- there were no drug stores open on Sunday- I would have most likely had to get on the autostrada and find the nearest gas station to attempt to find pain killers- which even then might not have happened. I almost threw him into the car and drove him home at 4am. Somehow, he ended up falling asleep and woke up to a lesser headache. So we ate breakfast, jumped in the car, and came back home.

Only to stop to see where Mussolini had been been gunned down and executed. It was right up the street from where we stayed!!