Gravedona, Lago di Como

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Of all the places in the world we were told that Lake Como was one of the most beautiful and enchanting. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into....it was truely remarkable. Lake Como sits at the base of the Swiss Alps and truely holds it's own. We stayed at the Northwest corner in a little town called Gravedona. Lets just say that Gravedona was so small that in three days we had eaten at everywhere trattoria and gelateria in town, which was not hard to do. In Gravedona we found the most delicious gelato, "brie frita," and caprese salad (which I discovered later was even better in its homeland of Capri which was our last stop). I am not sure if I would have ever tried it prior to Gravedona but Pistachio gelato was a delicacy. The most delicious, creamy, nutty concoction I have ever tasted. You will find me licking away in many of our photos in Gravedona. I think that everytime Eric took a picture of me I had a gelato in hand.

From the train station we shared a taxi with a woman from Denmark, she was very kind and paid for most of the ride because we couldnt find a cash machine. She was able to decipher the majority of what the driver was saying...he mostly talked about politics and "president Bush's war"......very awkward. We just smiled and agreed with whatever he said.

We stayed at the Hotel Regina which was the best and one of the least expensive accomodations we stayed in during the entire trip. The receptionist was about our age (beautiful, I kept asking Eric to ask her questions and I know he didnt mind) and the only person that spoke any english. I think that Como was the one place that we truely mastered the art of "survival Italian." We mostly layed on the front lawn above the lake at our hotel and walked the few streets of Gravedona at night. It was VERY hot, like it was our whole trip.

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