Mi Amo Lake Como

WOW! I forgot how much I missed Italy until my return. A lifestyle where taking in the "Italian culture" involves eating pizza, pasta, gelato, and drinking prosecco, Chianti, and other fine Italian delicacies is le dolce vita.

Breathtaking views, friendly people, and a language I can understand... Now that's more like it.


After living in Sweden, I felt like Lake Como was cheap... Very frightening thought. In fact, the prosecco I ordered at the bar was $2.50 a glass, about 5x less than in Stockholm.

Another great thing about flying out of Sweden is duty free. A bottle of Absolut vodka, made in Sweden, is between $40-50 US dollars. However, in duty free, this same bottle is less than $20. What is wrong with this picture?

The Incident


As many of you know, I have many "incidents." My mom, to be diplomatic, refers to me as "accident prone" as opposed to clumsy.


For those of you at Hollis's wedding, you might recall "the incident." Deciding to ride bikes with my friends after a mere 10 years off the bike, an incident occurred. We had been riding about 50 feet when I lost control and started heading full speed ahead towards a tree. I had to "jump ship" onto the pavement to avoid colliding with the tree. A local security guard rushed to the scene, about 15 minutes later to file the essential accident report. Luckily, I only had a cut toe and some scraped knees. The rental company was kind enough to refund my bike rental fee, considering the short duration of my ride. For those of you who say, "it's just like riding a bike, you never forget"... Well, you were wrong.

Lake Como Incident

When arriving in Lake Como, I noticed that people were swimming in the lake. I was very excited about this seeing as the water in Stockholm is in the 60s, and I can't even go swimming at Barton Springs.


So, I thought... I will just walk down this boat ramp and put my feet in. I was carrying my luggage for the weekend, and trekked down. To my dismay, I was wearing flip flops and encountered some algae at the point where the water meets the cement (see photo). My feet slipped out from under me and I went plummeting into the lake. Still having my bag with me, I was using all of my energy to push the bag to safety... My camera and iphone were in it. Once that was rescued, I tried to stand up to walk up the ramp. The algae got me again, and again I fell back into the water. No one even saw me to help... On the third try I finally made it out of the water alive, with a soaking wet skirt. I am now proud to say that I have fallen into Lake Como!

Bellagio, Bellisimo

Bellagio was so beautiful, and made the whole trip. There were sidewalk cafes to choose from on every corner, and some good Italian shopping.


My hotel, Hotel Belvedere, (pictured on the left) made the whole trip. They hotel is located above the city center, and has a spectacular view of lake como and the mountains. The infinity pool also had a hot tub that looks directly down on the lake. They also had a great spa, and I finally got the pedicure I've been dying for... Pedicures are not popular in Sweden, and very expensive.

I took a boat ride to Como and a nice couple in front of my pointed out George's house on the lake...

Erba
Hotels.com can be misleading. I found a hotel that I was convinced would be amazing, and "close" to Lake Como. The hotel, Castello di Casiglio, forgot to mention that you cannot get to their hotel without a car, and that the town of Erba does not have cabs or public transportation. After attempting to walk uphill for 30 minutes the hotel agreed to send someone to pick me up.


Other than being remote, the hotel was beautiful. It is an ancient castle from the 1400s that was converted into a hotel. The pool also had a beautiful view of the surrounding hills.

Italy, Ciao for now!

K Fitz