Lake Como Area

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We are staying in Lugano, Switzerland but we are very close to the Italian border. We decided to drive to Lake Como. The first town we come to is Menaggio. We stop here and walk through the town. I buy a Christmas ornament, a globe with pictures of Lake Como. It is a cute town with a promenade along the lake. We then head to Villa Del Balbianello, this villa has been used as a movie set for many movies including Star Wars and the Bond film Casino Royale. Darn the villa is closed on Mondays and Wednesdays. We decide to visit another villa in Tremezzi called Villa Carlotta. This is a beautiful villa overlooking the lake and has large gardens. We spend hours here checking out the villa and beautiful gardens. In 1843 Princess Marianne of Nassau bought the villa as a wedding present for her daughter Carlotta, hence the name Villa Carlotta. We stop for pizza in Tremezzi at a restaurant called Restaurante Rodrigo. Wow prices are more than 50% cheaper in Italy than Switzerland. I have been drinking beer in Switzerland because the wine is so expensive but in Italy the house wine is cheap and good. The pizza of course is good, we decide we could eat pizza for dinner too because it is so good.

After lunch we take a ferry to Bellagio, the cost is nine euros round trip. There are people only ferries and car ferries going to Bellagio. You can also take the ferry to the City of Como. Bellagio is a cute town with the town going uphill and alleys filled with shops. We want to have a pizza dinner here but the restaurants do no open until seven and the last ferry leaves at 7:40. We decide to have gelato for dinner instead. We eat at Gelatera Del Borgo the highest rated gelato in Bellagio and it is good. We enjoyed our day in Italy and decide to come back the next day. On our way back to Lugano we stop at a large grocery store in Italy. We take advantage of the cheaper prices to stock up on wine, food and chocolate.

The next day we head to Italy at nine, our parking disc allows us to park for free for one hour starting at 8:00 so we always leave the apartment at nine, our other choice would be to move the car every hour or park in a lot that charges. We head to Lake Comabbio, Italy. We plan to rent bikes but we do not have the name of a bike shop. We stop at a campground on Lake Comabbio to ask if they rent bikes. The receptionist does not speak English but with my sign language he undrestands and points toward town and says Montelago. We head to town and pull into Hotel Montelago. Yes they do rent bikes so we rent bikes and head around the 12.5 km path around the lake. We see many water lilies along the way. It is not hot and we have some rain, not many people on the path. We feel like we have the lake to ourselves. After our bike ride we are hungry and head toward a pizza restaurant we found on Yelp. On our way we pass Luna Y Sol, I see lots of trucks parked outside. We decide to stop and the local workers do have it right, good cheap pizza and wine. We will miss Italy and the good food and wine..

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Comments

[Debbie Byrne]

Visit to Lake como
I was in Lake Como several years ago and it was my favorite place in Italy. Loved it and the food was wonderful also.

[AndersonsAdventures]

Lake Como
We liked Lake Como better than Rome.