Part II. Lake Como and Lake Lugano

Day 2 began just as beautifully as our first day in Lake Como. We could not have asked for better weather, that is for sure. I MIGHT have had something to say about the heat but when I walked into our room with air conditioning, any compliants I might have had faded into an oblivion! I honestly slept like a ROCK for all three nights we were there. I have already forwarned my parents that when I come home, there will be no skimping on the air conditioning! Our second day at Lake Como started much the same as the first but instead of heading to Bellagio on the ferry, we headed to the little town of Varenna. Varenna is the town where my parents and several of our friends have stayed in the past. We had several restuarant suggestions and were ready for the day. Above is Deaner relaxing on our ferry ride to Varenna. Once again the views were stunning and here are a few picture that are specific to this ferry ride.Pulling into Varenna was completely different than pulling into Bellagio the day before. I was really surprised because all these towns are on the same lake but SO unique in their own ways! Varenna was perfect. I loved Bellagio but there was something about Varenna that was so neat. Here are a few shots of the town when we were pulling into the dock.There isn't as much to do in Varenna as in Bellagio or Menaggio but we still enjoyed walking around the small city and seeing the excellent views from above the houses.We came with two restaurant recommendations and of course we soon found ourselves to be hungry! The first restaurant that was recommended by my mom was Il Cavatappi. It is supposedly world famous and only has 6 tables in the whole restuarant. The famous chef (don't ask me his name!) cooks everything behind a glass window so you can see him. Surprisingly we actually found this restaurant just wandering up and down the streets sightseeing. The bad news was that the one outdoor table was occuplied and it was really too hot to eat inside. The second recommendation was to eat at this restuarant, the Albergo Milano, because the restaurant is on the roof top and offers spectacular views, as you can see!It is really too bad that it was only open for DINNER! Fortunately there were plenty of other waterfront restaurants to chose from. This is what our view ended up being! Not too shabby!After we finished up with lunch we decided that we had seen everything there was to see in Varenna. Since it was only about 2:30pm we came up with the idea to head back to the hotel, pick up our Passports, and drive up to Lake Lugano in Switzerland! I was so excited to do this because I haven't been to Switzerland in almost 15 years. Plus, I was going to get to see another beautiful lake! The drive into Switzerland took a bit longer than we anticipated because a tour bus was in front of us and it was WAY too big to be on those tiny lake roads. UGH. We got to Lake Lugano around 4:30 and parked the car. I could immediately tell I wasn't going to like it as much as Lake Como. For one thing, there were TONS of people there and it was very crowded. I didn't realize it but it was a MUCH larger city than I was expecting and I just didn't care for it at much. Here are a few pictures of the lake, which is still stunning, but just not as nice as Lake Como.After seeing the town of Lugano we decided that we would prefer to head back to Lake Como for dinner. We stopped in the town of Menaggio for the 2nd night and found a new restaurant to try, which was delicious. Deaner even ate RABBIT. Yuck. The sky really opened up while we were at dinner and we weren't sure our little Fiat Panda was going to make it back to our hotel! Thankfully we did and spent the rest of the evening packing up to leave. Since we had to get up at 4:30am it was sort of imperative that we be ready to go once we rolled out of bed. Our flight home on Ryan Air was actually on time but the people on board were totally obnoxious. That is a post for another day I fear. I could go on for a long time about Italian Men and there apparent lack of respect for ANYone but I will do that sometime other than now! Hope everyone enjoyed these pictures! They took about forever and a day to upload! I can't wait to have real internet in our house soon! Stay tuned because Deaner thinks that there is a chance we will be able to move into our new house by August 1st!! I have pictures of the place and I think it is about time that I showed them to y'all!!