Lake Como

September 4, 2013

We spent a lot of time today in the sunshine and some of it on the water.  We took a boat ride on Lake Como—didn’t know until we were on it that the boat went from little village to little village dropping off and picking up passengers. 
 

 

 

 I kept feeling as if we were in the movie “Mama Mia”—the landscape looked so similar, and we were on a boat full of people speaking Italian and going home by boat. I want to know more about the history of this lake and all the little villages. We didn’t see them all, but what we did see had similar appearances. I did find out that it is one of the deepest lakes in Europe and is fed by glaciers. Also, Robin told me that George Clooney had a home here somewhere, but I don’t know about that. 

 

 

 

After the boat ride, we wandered around the square in the town of Como, where we are—stopped for lunch, shared a little pizza that tasted like a frozen DiGiorgno, window shopped a little, and studied a beautiful church in the middle of it all—Robin thinks it looks like the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Monroe Park in Richmond.

I love being in Italy, experiencing the cultural differences and the sunshine—there really is something about the sun here that is different.  I would like to have a trip some time to explore just Italy. 

Lots of people here smoke—in restaurants—and ride motor scooters.  Everyone eats gelato—haven’t done that yet.  The hotel has shampoo, no wash cloths.  The Swiss had wash cloths. 

As we wandered around the square last night, we saw a huge tent.  Robin thought it was a craft show or flea market of some sort.  We approached and discovered a book fair—usually we would love to be a part of that—except that every book was in Italian!

Tomorrow we’re heading back up into Switzerland on our way to France.  Robin checked in with Samantha on the GPS and learned that we would be averaging 38 mph on the winding roads back up into the Alps.  That doesn’t sound easy, but I’m sure it will be an adventure. We’re spending one night there before heading over to Chamonix, France, near Mount Blanc. 

(We'll be publishing more pictures of Lake Como later--we're out of time.)