Lake Como Italy = BLISS!

This is a picture story. Which means you are in luck! A picture is worth 1,000 words, right?! So imagine how long this could have been!

On Monday Dude and I boarded a train to Lake Como, Italy. Switzerland to Italy in the Alps – words can’t describe the beauty so here’s my favorite photo from this leg (ignore my reflection):


The train ride was suppose to be a major highlight of the trip and this is how I enjoyed it:


Got to Lake Como and we had to figure out how to get to the marina to catch the boat to the hotel. It was about a ½ mile so we decided to walk. Nobody mentioned the stairs I had to walk down…with my suitcase…and my tri bag…and my laptop THE DAY AFTER IRONMAN(view from the bottom):


We made it, boarded the boat and about 15 minutes later we made it to the hotel. Here is our lake view from the balcony.

Straight out:

To the Left:

To the Right:


We got cleaned up and I packed up all of my IRONMAN finisher gear, removed my Athlete bracelet, took off my Heart to Tri necklace and became a GIRL for the rest of vacation. Girly Clothes, Hair, Makeup, Heels – the works! It was just one of those things I wanted to do to put the IMS obsession behind and concentrate on us. We went for a walk around town looking for a place for dinner. Finally we found La Baia Bar and Restaurante. Ok – it looked more like someone’s house with balcony seating. The owner, Mario, was the host/waiter and his mother was the chef. ABSOLUTELY incredible food! We started with carpaccio, my main dish was the special of the night – asparagus stuffed ravioli’s, but I can't remember what Dude had. Here's a pic of the restaurant (there were maybe 10 tables on that balcony) and a blurry shot of Dude with Mario (owner), his mother, and the waitress (picture was taken a couple nights later).


Tuesday – Tourist Day/”5 scoops of Gelato Day”
We took a 2 ½ hour boat ride to Varrena – the stop just North of Bellagio because the tour book said it was as nice but not as “touristy” as Bellagio. The boat ride was GORGEOUS (one view):


While aboard we went Villa Shopping and narrowed it down to this one:


Or this one:


What do you think?

Got to Varenna, and had the first of 5 scoops of gelato for the day. I tend to stick with pistachio but also find banana quite tasty. Walked around a bit (had more gelato) and found a museum/botanical garden (Manastareo) to explore. Couple pics from there:




After taking 100’s of pictures we wandered back into town, had more gelato and decided it was time for a drink. Here is Dude’s review of the 1st place we tried:
Rudest waitress EVER – you can see her in the doorway.

So we went next door. Dude’s review of this place:


Dinner was back at a place close to the hotel where I had salmon fettuccine (the salmon was actually IN THE PASTA – oh my Gawd – Incredible). And Dude had Spaghetti with Fruitta de Mare which can only be described as the essence of Italy in every bite.

Wednesday – Isola di Comacino/Cinque Bottiglie Di Vino
There is one island in all of Lake Como called Isola di Comacino. On the island are the ruins of S. Eufemia basilica and an incredible restaurant with no menu but endless amounts of food. You basically have a choice of fish/no fish, wine/no wine. We went with no fish/with wine. We soon found out it was bottomless wine. Yeah! The food was incredible, basically course after course of vegetables in olive oil (best onion I’ve ever had in my life), pancetta, parmesan, gelato, and bread (and some coffee that you had to drink to break the island’s curse). Here's Dude and I after some wine and one with me and the restaurant sign.



Oh, and this was my George stalking day. Apparently he’s dined at this restaurant so I got my picture taken with him (kind of):


We went back to the mainland and took a terrifying bus ride to the next town which required us to have more wine. Then a boat ride across to our town where we had more and more wine. Then we rested up for dinner. We went back to the restaurant from the first night where they made me Fruitta de Mare and I have no idea what Dude had. By the way, we had more wine. And my camera died so no more pictures.

Thursday – Final Day
We hung around the hotel in the morning and went swimming in the lake. Finally packed up and headed to Como and I FINALLY got to have pizza in Italy (this was a quest everyday). It was a miserably hot day and I was thankful to get on the train to head to Zurich. In keeping with my original travel nightmare the train was delayed and we didn’t get to the Zurich hotel until well after 8 (left at 2 – should have been 4 hours max). We did room service because we had an early flight to catch in the morning.

Friday – Travel Day
In keeping with my original travel nightmare, we were suppose to leave at 10 am (got to the airport at 0800) but we finally had wheels up at just after 7 pm. Because of the delay we obviously missed our connecting flight. We finally got home at close to noon on Saturday. Ask me how I feel about American Airlines!

Besides the travel issues this was the best and most relaxing vacations I've ever been on. Since I recently received an email saying I won $1 Million Euro I'm seriously considering getting one of those villas. Just as soon as I send my bank account information back so they can deposit my winnings!