Swimming in a Lake of Silk and Gelato

On day two in Milan, we decided to make a day trip of Lake Como. Our original plan was to go out to the lake with all of our packs, and stay the night, then go from there to Lake Maggiore and onto Switzerland. When we talked to the train personel, they let us know that there was no train from Como to Maggiore, the one train we could take would put us from Como to Milan, then Milan to Como. So hense, why we decided to stay two nights at the business hotel. It was a good decision, as the hotel was nice, and the breakfast was great. Tim had granola, and since we could not find cold milk for it (only hot for the coffee) he decided to eat it with yogurt. He was very happy with the decision, and raved about its goodness off and on all day, eagerly anticipating the next breakfast. He is going to love it that I told you all about it. :)

We slept in a bit, as this hotel had both curtins and shutters, which kept out most of the light. It was great, but the trip was started about 3 hours late. We took the 10:30 train which brought us to lake Como AT 11:37. We found the tourist information office, recieved about 5 lbs of paper worth of information on the area, and grabbed the next hydrofoil (high speed boat) that was there. All of this happened in about 20 minutes after we departed the boat, so our heads were spinning a bit. It took about an hour to get around Lake Como to the small town of Bellagio. A beautiful little town, very picturesque (as if all small towns in Italy dont belong on postcards!)

We walked to a beach called La Puente, and of course, where there is open water and a beach, Tim must go in. Except this time, he went all the way in. Unfortunatley for him, the water here was not nearly as warm as it was on the Cinquw Terre trail, and he grimaced mightily as he went under. The whole experience lasted all of 20 minutes, but it made for some great photos on my part. Of course, I was smart, and removed my Teva sandles to dip in a toe, but no more than that. Hey, it was cold, and I dont do cold well. :)

We then walked through the town, and explored some of the little shops with hand made items. We purchased a few things, and then had our second meal of the day. Gelato of course. First their is breakfast, then gelato 1 then gelato 2 then lunch then gelato 3 then maybe dinner but of course you must have gelato 4, right? Am I weird in this? I didnt think so.

I tried coconut, which is a new flavor for me, and a little scarey. I like coconut, but do you want to commit to an entire scoop of it as ice cream? Thankfully it was wonderful, so great that Tim ate a huge chunk of it.

We then headed back to the hydrofoil which took is back to Como. We visited their Duomo (from what I can tell, a Duomo is a church, but I am not sure what separates a Duomo from a Cathedral). We then had gelato 2 (see a trend here?). We tried finding some silk stores, as Como is known for their silks and all the Italian designers come there to plan their yearly silk needs for their collections. Most of what we found was touristy, or artisitic, but nothing much in between. I did buy one silk scarf (see Jeannette, I can get Tim to buy me clothes!) but everything else was priced way outside of what I was comfortable with. I just dont wear that many scarves, or silk in general, so there was little appeal for me.

We hopped on a train back to Milan, had lunch at a little cafeteria (not sure why they called it this, it looked and acted like a true restaurant to us) and then went to bed. Up early in the morning for Lake Maggiore!