Day 9

(6-8-2013)

Lake Como

Hello family!

Our second day in Lake Como, we woke up early in order to take a train over to Varenna: a super cute town on the same side of the lake as us (so not too far to get to). We planned to have breakfast there, see the Villa Monestereo, and then hop on a oboat to go across the lake to some of the bigger towns. We found an adorable little cafe that spilled directly into the water and decided to stop there for some cappuccinos and croissants. We had barely started eating when it began to POUR. There was thunder, lightening, and buckets and buckets of rain. And even worse, the forecast said it was supposed to be like this for the rest of the day. Luckily, we were covered by a tent, but now our plan for the day was ruined! Who wants to be outside on a day like that?

So, we hung out at the cafe for a LONG time and then when the rain let up a bit, we headed off to the Villa Monestereo - a big villa with incredible gardens that used to be a convent. Now people go there for conferences a when they do, they get to stay in the huge Villa! Anyways, we wandered around for a bit exploring the place and had a blast and then, of course, it started to pour again. So we decided to have another night of cooking and went to a shop to buy some bread, mozzarella, and wine. Around lunch time, almost every shop closes for about an hour and a half, so there wasn't a store open where we could buy fruits and vegetables. So we decided just to go back to Dervio and go to the fruits and vegetables store we had been to the day before! Well, lo and behold that when we got back to Dervio, EVERY store was closed because it was a Sunday. By now, it was absolutely pouring, so we ran back to our place to figure out what to do. Once inside, we didn't want to go back out into the pouring rain again, so we ended up reading and taking naps :)

By the time we woke up, it was still pouring so Will ran out to a pizza place to get some meat pizza (we didn't have any meat) while I tried to fix something from what little we had. We had a lovely, if somewhat skimpy, last meal in Lake Como and then headed off to get some sleep before our trip to France.

Lake Como was a truly beautiful place and we could definitely appreciate why people love to go there, yet when we were there there was just way too much rain to be able to enjoy it. Will talked with someone who said that it's rained more recently than he could ever remember it raining, so I think we were just a bit unlucky. Hopefully if we ever go back it will be nicer weather!

Off to France!

Xoxo,
Elizabeth and Will

P.S. I've been playing with the panorama feature on my phone so that's why some pictures look a bit different.