Lago di Como (Lake Como)

A beautiful five and half hour drive from home including an awesome 17 km sheer tunnel stretch through the St. Gotthard bringing you from Switzerland into Italy. The whole stretch was mainly on autobahn A5 and A2 and a beautiful stretch at that on the A2 and you are already in the beautiful Italian region of Lombardy. I am loving Villa Guardia a little town close to Como and also loving the lovely ancient stone villa run by Francesca and her husband Georgio. Well, the wireless internet connection only works from the east facing bedroom but then who cares about these minor details when you are on vacation ;-) Georgio promised to give hubby dear the keys to their own private chapel if we wanted to take a look, of course we want to!!!!

The drive from Villa Guardia to Como was very adventorous. The Italians had no clue that I was following hubby's car very closely, everybody tried to jump right in between with their swanky cars and I was determined to stay put and not let them just squeeze their way in. As long as you don't understand the language the swear words also sound like music :-) Little bunny and little rabbit were quite amused that everybody honked away to glory.

Como is such a lovely town and the lake Como is the deepest lake in Europe and the bottom of the lake is more than 200 meters below sea level.

The streetside markets definitely beckoned but I was reminded harshly that we were here for checking out the place and not to shop!!! Well, well, well...after a yummy seafood risotto and a nice dry Gewürztraminer to go with it and I was happy again. Ordering a caffè automatically gets you an espresso and a super strong one that helps you carry around the little ones without a care in the world. My parents decided that Cappuccino was more their preferred option than the stealthy dark espressos. You can get lost walking through the beautiful narrow alleys in old town Como, every little alley alluring and inviting you to explore its hidden treasures.

Yippee, we still have Mennagio, Varrenna, Bellagio, Bergamo and Cadenabbia on the weeks itinerary!!!