Lake Como

Our visit to Lake Como was amazing! If I would have know ahead of time how pretty it is, I would have planned for us to spend more time there. It actually ended up being a pretty late minute decision to go at all. We went to the main train station in Milan Saturday morning to find out train prices to get there. We had already been told it was only about a 20 minute train ride. The next train wasn't for about 2.5 hours so we had to decide whether or not we wanted to kill that much time in the station or just leave and explore Milan a little more. We decided we wanted to go. We headed downstairs to the ticket office and the lines ended up being so long that we barely had time to get a cup of coffee and a croissant before we had to catch our train. The beginning of the ride from Milan out to Lake Como was depressingly ugly. Lots of run down apartments and graffiti. Oh my, the graffiti in Milan AND Lake Como was so sad! Like mom said...all these beautiful buildings with "tagging" all over them. When we arrived at the very small station we walked in a few circles looking for the tourist office. The girl was very helpful and gave us a map and some tips on things that we might want to see. Of course, Bev asked where we could find George, but his house was too far away from where we were. It was very cloudy/foggy that day, so later in the day when we finally did make our way to the lake, the views weren't as great as I assume they are on a clear day. Most of our day was spent wandering in and out of shops, walking through the outdoor flea market and enjoying white wine and hot fudge Sunday's for lunch. (Hey, we were on vacation and we could eat whatever we wanted!!) Once we got to the lakeside area, we looked in to taking a boat tour of the lake, but decided that we wouldn't have enough time and still be able to catch our train back to Milan. So, we decided to take the tram (I know there is a "proper" name for that thing, but I can't remember) up the side of the mountain to see the views of the city. I suddenly realized my fear for those things! All I could think about was the cable snapping and us falling all the way to the bottom. Of course mom has to let me know that she thinks we would probably topple over in the car instead of just cruising straight back down the track. That was reassuring for me too. When we got to the top, it was almost too foggy for us to even see all the way down. But there were some amazingly beautiful houses at the top and we peaked through a few gates too. :) Overall, Lake Como is somewhere I would highly recommend anyone who is able to make it to Italy to visit. I hope that I can make it back some day and spend more time!! The pictures below are in NO order, obviously...