LAKE COMO

Next stop...Bellagio, Lake Como!! I've heard a lot about Lake George Clooney...I mean, Lake Como. And everything they say about it is true! It is absolutely breath taking! Of course, it doesn't hurt viewing it from Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni...

Not. too. shabby.

My arm was quite bruised after our short trip here because I kept pinching myself. 

Oh, this little pool? 

Clear blue skies+ breathtaking mountains+ and a crystal clear lake= Heaven.

Clearly, they had to twist my arm to get me here. :)

Rick Steve's highly recommends the little town of Varenna, but I wouldn't overlook Bellagio.

When I first spotted this sign I didn't see the "I," so I thought it was written, "Susse." And of course, I pronounced it, "Suzy." "Hotel Suzy!" I was so excited that Susan had a hotel named after her...and then I realized very quickly that I had it all wrong. We all had a good laugh, and still pronounce this as "Hotel Suzy."

For dinner we ate at his delicious restaurant that I would go back to in an instant. Barchetta is located on the second floor. Just thinking about it makes me hungry. 

I can't hardly imagine a more beautiful place! Sunsets won't be the same after seeing them here.

The next morning we decided we would all meet each other at 11am to go out, but until then we would have breakfast on our own. When Nick and I walked down to have breakfast, Aunt Diane and Susan walked in too! 

We had a delicious buffet in a grand ballroom. Just the way I like to start my day! Haha! :)

Nick wanted to get out on the water that day, so he found a boating company nearby that would take him wake boarding. Susan, Aunt Diane and I had a reservation for a walking tour of the Villa Serbelloni Gardens. We went to the square just past this beautiful old church to get our tickets.

We had a few moments before the tour started, so Aunt Diane sat to read while Susan and I started off on our separate adventures in Bellagio. We quickly realized that we were both walking in the same direction, so we decided to stay together. 

We walked back to the tour starting point, grabbed Aunt Diane, and we were off. We had about 30 people on the tour with us. Our tour guide was a sweet girl that spoke about 10 languages, and had a laugh that sounded like a donkey. It was hilarious!

The hike was pretty steep, but it was definitely worth the views! The guide was very strict about where we could take photos on the tour. The gardens have guests come and stay year-round. Many of them are artists like: painters, writers, musicians and yogies. ( a person that loves yoga) And basically, you can't disturb the artists in their natural habitat. :) A few of us got in trouble for taking photos when we weren't supposed to. 

After about 45 minutes we reached the top! From here you can see the northern part of the lake. 

When we walked back to our hotel, Nick was sitting enjoying some sun by the pool. He told us that he'd not only gone wake boarding, he'd also gone shopping! (shocking!) He'd found a small place to buy a nice pair of slacks and a nice shirt. The older women were practically serving him hand and foot. They would come out with an outfit, and raise it above their heads as an offering up to him. He thought it was hilarious. He did end up with a great pair of slacks and a nice collared shirt.

We asked Nick to get into the cold lake water, and dive off of the wooden platform off the shore. It took him a few minutes, but he finally plunged into the frigid water!

There he goes!

Brrr. I don't know if I could have done it!

We were all a little hot (other than Nick) and hungry, so we sat at the poolside restaurant to get some lunch.

It was a very educational lunch. We learned that ducks like chlorinated water.

After our quick bite, we sailed off on a ferry to the little town of Vernazza. It's a quick 10 minute ride from Bellagio.

Varenna

The ferry landed right in front of this somewhat creepy looking hotel where apparently Susan stayed with Grampy about a decade ago. The owner, Laura, was a grumpy woman, but she loved Grampy! (who wouldn't!?) It didn't take us long to see that she was still working there! We tried to get a picture of her discretely later on in the trip.

Some nice tourists offered to take our photo! I think it's probably the best one of the four of us!

Swans are so pretty, but so mean! It's hard to tell, but this swam was hissing.

We like to play a game of "pick your house." This was Aunt Diane's pick. She looks like she's right at home.

Aunt Diane stopped for a refreshment at Hotel Du Lac, while Susan, Nick and I continued on to some gardens.

While we were there, we could hear the soft sound of classical music in the background. A wedding was being held in the gardens. We were careful about which staircase we went up, so we didn't interrupt.

On our way out, we took some photos on a balcony overlooking the wedding. The bridal party music began, and Nick started to freak out. "We have to leave RIGHT NOoooooW!" 

We never saw any of the bridal party, but it was hilarious seeing Nick freak out. We all had a good laugh about it afterward. Whenever we needed to get somewhere in a hurry, we would say, "We need to go RIGHT NOOOOW!"

On our way back to get Aunt Diane, we walked through the main square in Varenna.

I tried to snap a quick picture of Laura, the owner of the creepy hotel. It was too blurry to even post here, but it was fun to see that she's still there! It reminded us a lot of Grampy. He came up often in our conversations on our trip. We all agreed he would have really enjoyed this trip.

That night we went out to eat at one of the most spectacular meals of our lifetime. The Mistral Ristorante serves a molecular cuisine. (A what?) A molecular cuisine is described as an alternative cooking method of unusual combinations to create new flavors with high quality food. 

We started with red prawns with guacamole ice cream, then coconut cream and cuttlefish ink waffles. After that we had cream of "curdled" egg filled with sweet herbs. In the picture above is tartare of "Fassone" beef topped with pink pepper.

This was the veal cooked at low temperature with inuline sabayon, fried potato (singular), and caramelized onion. 

To end the meal we had Italian Mint meringue filled with berried, marinated strawberries and white chocolate sauce. And last, we ate baked pineapple with orange and nitrogen frozen ice cream. Try and top that. I dare you. It was simply amazing!

On our final morning on Lake Como, we didn't have time to do much, so Susan and I set out for the town of Bellagio. We agreed to try and go our separate ways, knowing that we'd likely run into each other again. We only had about an hour, and it went by quickly! We ran into each other at the end, and got a few pics before we departed Bellagio.

I hope I return to Lake Como again, and possibly even Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni. We were treated like royalty! It is by far one of the most beautiful places in the world.