Lake Como

Over Memorial Day weekend, we had the pleasure of spending our holiday with friends at beautiful Lake Como.  The pictures say it all.....it is truly an amazing place, this lovely blue lake with snow capped Alps for a backdrop, and picturesque villas and villages dotting the shores....so gorgeous!

restaurant window with a view
 



friendly swans...



...getting closer...

....maybe not so friendly after all...  eek!



We rode the ferry boats around to view the lakeshore from the water and to stop off in a few of the villages, one of which was the original Bellagio.  We were lucky to have a beautiful sunny day after the unseasonably cold weather we'd had. 

 

Paul was of course very excited to search for the villa that part of Star Wars episode 2 was filmed in, but the boat didn't get very close.  Here are a few of the shots from afar:

Since the likes of George Clooney, Madonna, Daniel Craig, Paul McCartney and many other super stars have homes along Lake Como, a favorite theme throughout the trip was pointing out which villas belonged to which stars.  Of course we had no idea, but we had fun with our imaginings.  Statements like: 'oooh, that one.  That one is most definitely George Clooney's villa.  I believe I just saw him sunbathing on the front lawn,' were thrown around regularly (substitute Madonna above if one of the males in our group made the statement.) Ha! 

And good thing I had my telephoto lens with me, because I definitely felt like paparazzi taking these next photos: next to the swimming pool inside the floating dock in the lake, there was a swimsuit model shoot taking place.  Seriously, it was hard to return to real life after a few days in this place. 

Our favorite part of the trip was the spectacular views overlooking the lake,
 after ascending in the funicular (glass elevator/gondola/cable car ride).  What a view!

We soaked in the scenery and enjoyed some of the best pizzas and calzones we've had in all of Italy.  Fantastic!  Truly an unforgettable place.  As was our journey back down the mountainside: after lunch we returned to the funicular for our return trip only to find that the winds had picked up and the cable car had been shut down. The operator told us that we could walk down, which would probably take us several hours down the meandering, switchback road (or longer, with four small children including a 2 year old) or wait to see if the winds let up.  Since several locals were waiting, we figured we would wait it out too.  About 30 minutes later, the operator told us we could "try" to descend - what?!? What exactly is the alternative here??  As we embarked, we noticed that all the locals were looking at us a bit skeptically - certainly they thought that the ignorant tourists should be guinea pigs in this endeavor and 'gallantly' let us go first.  Ha!   The ride down was rather sketchy- they stopped the funicular several times, quite suddenly, and we sat swaying in the wind until the breezes died down enough for us to continue.  Paul, who has a bit of a problem with heights and confined spaces to begin with, was close to hyperventilating.  Yikes!  But we made it, safe and sound - though they shut down the ride behind us.  They certainly know how to put the 'fun' in 'funicular.' :)  What a memorable journey, indeed!