Blogs from Lombardy, Italy, Europe - page 5

This morning the rainy had not quite departed when we boarded a boat for Isola Bella, the summer residence of the Borromeos. The palazzo on the island took 100 years, three generations of Borromeos, to build. It has about 100 rooms--25 of them devoted to a museum. The Borromeos were in residence today--all three of them. They had the other 75. The museum reflects the original Baroque style of the time with the newer parts done in the Neo-classical style. The lavish art and fixtures were done to impress their guests. The king and queen of Italy, Napoleon and Josephine, and other rich and famous people stayed there. Before World War II, Mussolini, Flandin (French PM), Mussolini, and MacDonald met there to try to resolve differences and prevent war. The meeting was a failure. There are ... read more

Italy Day 4 – Off to the airport to pick up Carla and Liam who arrived from Sicily at midday. It was great to see them walk through the arrival gate. Loaded all their gear into the car and off we went into direction of east – heading towards Chur, St Moritz, Davos and then Livigno in the Italian Alps. WOW what a journey this turned out to be. In fact we would like to drive it again as the scenery was so spectacular. Parts of the road are only open for the late spring/summer as avalanche risk is extremely high. There are beautiful lakes, glaciers, and very rugged mountains making it an incredible drive. After passing St Moritz we stopped at a barrier thinking it was a toll booth. Turned out to be a very ... read more

We being back in Lake Como mean there is no driving required for three days (well very minimal anyway). On the first day we all go up to Bellagio for lunch and a look around. The afternoon brought some rest time, swimming, reading and a afternoon nap with dinner at a lovely little restaurant on the lake just a ten minute walk from home, great place to watch the sun go down. Yesterday we rented a boat and went cruising up to the top of Lake Como and found some new towns we would like to stay in next time that looked like there were no tourists. As we were coming down the opposite side we picked a secluded bay to stop and have lunch before continuing on and returning the boat mid afternoon again afternoon ... read more

Yesterday we left Etoy and traveled to the other end of Lake Geneva (originally called Lac Lemon) where we stopped to visit Chillon Castle, this is a 1000 year old castle that sites on rock in the lake. Access was across a modern bridge, but once in the castle the was a lot of history. Its prison once held Lord Byron and has been bombed and rebuild over the centuries. After leaving the castle and stopping next to the lake for a picnic, we headed for the mountains and Italy. We rose from 400m to 2000m and back down to 250m all in the space of 2 hours. The longest tunnel was over 6km long and seem to take for ever. Once in Turin we found our hotel the Allegroitalia Golden Palace right in the center ... read more

Today we leave the beautiful city of Venice and head to the city of fashion, Milan. It was a long day but well worth it. We rose fairly early and hit our private water taxi for a last look at the Grand Canal and the beauty that is St. Marks as we made our way to the ferry landing. Our bus driver, Andreus, drove the bus to the ferry and arrived at the appointed stop just as we landed in our taxi. Perfect timing. Since it was a long ride to Milan, I settled onto the bus for a much-needed nap. Both Cathy and I slept for the first leg of our journey. At about 10 AM we had a “comfort stop” at the Auto Grill. Now for those who have not been to Europe the ... read more