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We started out exploring Bellagio.
Corner square in Bellagio.
Bellagio Point, looking out at an overcast sky.
Our Euro-Berkeley group at the point.
Nearby café.
Walking the mean streets of Bellagio.
These cats are tormenting the dog.
Everywhere in Bellagio had a good view right around the corner.
Bellagio was all about walls.
More walking.
Lost but ambivalent, we continued our journey wherever the paths led us.
Johanna decided that this is her house.
That house was just around the corner from this view. I decided that this is my view.
Setting up the camera self-timer for a group shot in front of that view.
I was going to re-center and crop this photo, but I kind of like it crooked
the way it is.
Overlooking a cemetery covered in flowers.
Walking, talking and looking.
We proposed scaling that tower, but Nick didn’t want to mess up his
shoes.
Back by the water Shelly attempts to tame her hair, but ended up losing that
battle. Her hair later devoured
her.
After “doing” Bellagio, we decided to catch a ferry to nearby Varenna.
The ferry to Varenna does not appear to be warm.
View on the way.
More lake views.
Arriving to the town of Varenna.
We disembarked near this river and decided to hike into the hills in search
of a castle.
View on the way.
We hadn’t really planned on such a tough hike, but at least we worked
off some of the massive amounts of calories we had been ingesting.
We’re getting near to the castello.
Finally, the Castello di Varenna!
But, how were we to infiltrate the castle?
Nick uses his ninja-like skills to scale the fence.
This was the main weaponry protecting the castle.
Conquerors of the castle!
We were treated to this view from the castle.
We worked our way back down to town and along the water.
At one point our path led here, which was not where we intended to go, but
nice nonetheless.
Back on the boat, Nick the Bartender serves us up some cleaning supplies (he
has a thing or 2 to learn from Dryw the Bartender).
An ad on the boat. They say
Italians love their shoes, but this is getting ridiculous.
Back into Bellagio.
After all the walking, we were rather hungry. Nick is so loopy he started
communicating with the ducks.
This is where I got a chance to really put Italy in my mouth. Carmel
and I split a pizza, then we each got a main course. After we finished that, we each got
another main course. The
non-pizza dish on the left was an unbelievably amazing black gnocchi. Mmm…
*salivates on keyboard*
We also ate tons of gelato (Carmel
brought back 2 kg of it). This
was the best gelato place that we found.
The gelato was so soft and smooth that the woman couldn’t even
put it in a cone without it flopping right out. A more experienced woman came to her
rescue and showed her the twist-and-top technique that managed to contain all
that yummy goodness.
After dinner, we checked out Dante’s Inferno Bar, which was 3
levels—Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. Here, Carmel and Johanna happily relax in Heaven
after all that walking and eating.
Hell was pretty cool too, though we wished it were hotter.
Nick does an I’m in Hell impression.
Clapton
had tears in Heaven, we had drinks in Heaven. Nick is drinking something called a Torello.
Back at the house we attempted to eat an entire ice-cream cake and drink many
bottles of wine.
Let’s
just say listening to bad Italian radio and drinking lots of wine don’t
mix.
The weather improved the next day.
This is a view from a hammock in our hilly backyard (our house is just
below).
A view from Bellagio with more sunshine.
We just stopped for a quick bite to eat and take in some more magnificent
views.
Johanna tried to get a cold latte, but ended up with a cup of milk. Clearly she had been studying the
wrong section of her Italian language book.
Down by the water.
The flowers were soaking up the sunshine and the bees were getting it on (beesex).
Sunny Bellagio was even nicer than overcast Bellagio.
Steady, steady, and…
One last view from Bellagio!
We gathered up all our stuff and packed in for the drive to Milan.
Speeding by a church near the road (nailed it).
The roads were precariously narrow.
Motorcycles zoomed past us at every turn.
I think this is where Sarang had his seventh
heart-attack.
Uh yeah.
Twisting around these roads, we were treated to nice views of the lake.
Snapshot out the window.
Ciao Lake Como!
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