Last Day in Bellagio

On our last day in Bellagio we slept in, had a late breakfast of croissants, juice, coffee, and toast at a little outdoor cafe in town, and then did some shopping, buying Italian candies and scarves to bring home. By then it was getting hot so we walked through town to the Bellagio Sporting Club to go swimming. This was a bit of a distance and we arrived sweaty and ready to jump in the water. The Club was a bit like visiting a country club, with a nice outdoor pool, beautifully landscaped sunbathing area, several eating facilities, tennis courts on which you could also play soccer, and bikes to rent. We loved it and stayed all afternoon.

As the day went on the Club got busier and busier as Italian families came to swim, eat, and have fun, and it was interesting to watch and listen to them as they interacted with each other. The children raced around having a great time while their parents visited, read, or ate and drank. They made themselves available to their children, but didn't actually play much with them. I don't think I saw a single parent in the water with their child, as you do in American pools, nor did I see a single parent scold or discipline their child, as practically all American settings. Everyone just seemed relaxed and laid back, with the grownups doing grownup things and the kids doing kid things.

Besides the requirement that everyone in the water must wear a swimming cap, which, of course we Americans found extremely odd, there didn't seem to be any safety rules. The one person with "Lifeguard" written on the back of his t-shirt also set up newcomers in their lounge chairs and fetched pool towels as needed. Kids ran around on the concrete pool deck, hung from the railings, leapt into shallow water, wore water wings on their arms, and played with big inflatable toys--all forbidden at my local pool.

And the usual background noises of a swimming pool -- music, people talking, parents calling their children -- were, of course, in Italian. This language, along with the songs of the many birds in the trees around the pool, was beautiful to hear.

By evening our two boys were worn out and not up for an adult dinner. So while Ben and Jean and I strolled down to the nearby La Punta restaurant to celebrate our last evening in Italy, Paul and Robbie indulged in a feast of good free wifi in the room followed by a little adventure of going out down street into town on their own to pick up a snack of croissants.

Day Trip to Milan

Somewhere along the way in planning this trip Jean and I got the idea that wr should make a day trip to Milan after arriving in the Lake Como area. People posted on TripAdvisor that it was an easy thirty minute train ride from Bellagio into the city where you could see Leonardo DaVinci's "Last Supper," assuming you could get tickets, since viewing was highly restricted. Ben was game, and in March we got five tickets through a private tour guide who would give us a three-hour tour, including the fifteen minutes we were allotted in the chapel with the painting.

Once we had made the journey to Bellagio, however, and fell under the town's lazy spell, it was daunting to think about retracing our steps back to Milan for our tour. But yesterday we did, getting up at 6:00, out the door by 7:00 AM, on the ferry to Varenna at 7:35, on the train from Varenna to Milan at 8:37, on the metro for four stops, and then emerging at the Piazza Doumo to meet our tour guide at 11:00 in front of the Duomo Cathedral. Later in the afternoon we reversed the process, arriving back in our apartment in Bellagio about 7:00 PM. And all this on a very hot day, with the temperature reaching 90 degrees.

Was it worth it? All of us agreed that it was. We liked seeing the second largest city in Italy and noting how different it was from Rome. We liked seeing the LaScala Opera House and imaging being at an opera in its huge auditorium. We liked seeing the Sforza Castle with its beautiful brick work. We liked the white ornate front of the Duomo and the beautiful stained glass inside. We liked having a late lunch while people watching in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuel. We like eating what really must be the best gelato in Italy at Shockolat. We enjoyed the knowledge and style of our guide, Alicia Salvagnin. But above all we liked seeing "The Last Supper." Robbie liked seeing a masterpiece in a room with so few people. (The Sistine Chapel had been packed and quite noisy with the guards calling "silencio" and clapping their hands.) This opinion was seconded by Paul, who liked the quiet of the room, and Ben, who liked the reverent setting and the relative solitude in which this masterpiece could be viewed. I was amazed by the vivid 3-D affect given through the painting's perspective. You felt like you could crawl right under the table or fly right out the window behind the table.

It was a wonderful day trip, one well worth the effort.

Three days of Heaven

We have been in Bellagio for three days and have done nothing except eat great food from its restaurants and markets, shop in its unique stores, walk up and down its steep lanes and roads, promenade along the waterfront, sleep late, and otherwise just relax in this heavenly spot.

Yesterday Ben took a longer hike of a couple of hours though the extended town while the rest of us tried swimming in the lake at a park down the road. The water was very cold and the boys were dying to swim so we started the hunt for an indoor pool. We found one at the Grand Hotel, a five star hotel down the street from our apartment, and arranged to get a day pass to swim indoors today, when the weather was forecast for rain. It would cost 60 Euros (about $80) but that wasn't too bad for a rainy day activity.

But today turned out to be a glorious; sunny and hot, perfect for swimming outdoors. The Grand Hotel had a lovely landscaped outdoor pool right next to its perfect swimming dock and diving board in the lake. The cost, however, was crazy expensive; 60 Euros per person, meaning that for four of us to swim would cost about $300. We stood and looked longingly at the wonderful scene and I just couldn't bring myself to buy the indoor swimming pass. In a moment of inspiration I remembered the $400 end-of-the-school-year bonus I had received and decided that buying us day passes was the perfect use of that money.

It was!

Travel Day

It was time to leave "Bella Roma" and travel up to the northern lake region to Bellagio, on Lake Como. We knew this would be a busy and somewhat complicated day since the journey would be In three parts. First we would take a fast train to Milan. Then we would switch to a regional train taking us to Varenna, on the lake. Finally, we would take an short ferry across the lake to Bellagio.

The first order of business was to get out of our apartment by 10 AM, no easy task after a late night of wining and dining in Rome's beautiful piazzas. Not only did we have to pack but we had to do some basic cleaning before leaving, but we all worked as an awesome team and were pulling or carrying our luggage up the street shortly after 10:00. At the taxi stand an enterprising driver said he could take all of us and our luggage in his little car, and sure enough, he got us all packed in.

We arrived at the Termini station thirty minutes early and found our train on the boards. No gate had been assigned yet so we decided to buy the tickets for the train to Varenna using the automated ticket machine. This proved tricky until a man stepped in to help. He patiently walked us through the steps and once we had the tickets cupped his hands together for a tip, which we gave him. It was now ten minutes to our train and still no gate had been posted, so when another man appeared and told us our train was on platform four, we all followed him there and sure, enough, our train was just arriving. He, too, held out his hand for a tip.

We had Premium class assigned seats and after some false starts getting the free wifi going, we all settled back to enjoy the three hour ride on one of Europe's famed high speed trains. That was good because when we arrived in Milan we couldn't find our next train! As we studied our ticket and the departure boards we would have gladly tipped someone to show us the way. Instead it took two visits to the Information Office to finally figure out where the train was. It was about as far away from where were were as possible and was leaving in ten minutes, so we "put on the gas" and raced through the station, turned down the platform and breathlessly dragged our luggage into the first car which, of course, was packed with people and their bags. At least we were all aboard!

As we manuevered our luggage through the narrow aisles to find seats I ruefully recalled Rick Steeve's advice to pack light, especially when traveling by train. Finally we found a car with five seats occupied by other people's luggage, and thinking that the luggage had not paid for those seats, politely asked to have them, helped the people move their bags to the racks above, then put our own bags up (thank you, Ben!), counted heads to be sure we had all made it, and settled down to rest.

We never saw a conductor and no one announced the station stops, but I did a quick online search and found how to tell when our station was approaching so we could get our bags moved to the doors and be ready for a quick departure. And so we got off calmly in Varenna, where we fortified ourselves with sandwiches for the last leg of the trip. I also visited the little travel agency next to the cafe and learned that one has to know and the look for the final destination for the train in order to find it on the boards. Duh! Just like the DC Metro. But unlike the Metro, there weren't readily available maps to consult to figure out the termination point and our tickets didn't tell us.

Once on the ferry we could really see the beauty of the lake, and as we approached Bellagio we could see that we would be spending the next few days in a little piece of heaven.

A Few Last Images Of Rome

Before we leave Rome (or Roma, as it is called here) let's take a last look.

Rome: Day Five

Our last day in Rome wasn't actually spent in Rome but in the historical port of Rome called Ostia Antica. Wanting to see the excavated ruins of a large Roman town but not wanting to travel the several hours to Pompeii, we had arranged with Dark Rome for a morning tour of Osia Antica instead. It turned out to be a great choice. As we got off the train in Ostia we entered a blissfully calm and peaceful world free of the noise and congestion of Rome. As we walked the ruins and heard birds chirping, felt the gentle sea breeze, and smelled the blossoming jasmine, we all felt renewed. The tour guide, Daniella, was personable and knowledgeable and answered the questions we still had from our visit to San Clementine's. The boys especially loved the tour as they were free to tour on their own as long as they kept the group in their sight. Since everyone had headsets and could hear Daniella, it was easy for them to do some semi-independent exploration and for us adults do stop to take photos when we wanted.

Instead of returning to Rome with the tour group we took the train for a couple of stops to the beach. The Tyrrhenian Sea is only thirty minutes from Rome and is one of the places Romans go to get away from the city during the hot summer months. It was still early June, not too hot, and definitely windy when we visited. The red warning flags didn't keep our boys from dipping their toes in the water but the water was too cold to swim in, so we went off to find lunch. Ben seems to know how to pick a good restaurant and we had a great meal next to the water.

That night (Wednesday; I'm writing this on Friday) was our last in Rome. After a drink at the rooftop restaurant above the Spanish Steps, Ben and I met Jean and the boys and taxied over to Campo dei Fiori to check out that popular piazza. We had pizza and pasta in an outdoor pizzeria, thoroughly enjoying our last night of Rome's outdoor sociability.

Rome: Day Four

After our big day Monday we slept late Tuesday. Our apartment is very comfortable except for the fact that some rowdy seagulls congregate early each morning on the roofs near the back rooms and carry on making an incredible racket. They aren't your regular beach seagulls but raucous city gulls and they sound alternately like people screaming for help and like cats having a fight which is very unnerving to hear at four in the morning! And since the big windows were open we could hear them loud and clear. Most of us woke up for an hour or so of this clatter and only fell back to sleep when the party broke up.

We had a nice lunch of thin and tasty Italian ham, cheese, delicious tomatoes, fruit and bread while we discussed what we wanted to see. We had eaten dinner in the lovely piazza which surrounds the Pantheon the night before but the building had been closed. Going back to see the interior was number one on everyone's list and so after cleaning up from lunch (using the tiny dishwasher) we walked back over to the Pantheon. As I walked in I was overwhelmed with the beauty and age of this building. Given that it dates from about 120 AD and has no windows you'd think it would be very dark inside. Instead an opening in the top of the dome allows light to enter and bath the interior with a glorious ethereal glow which was quite moving. This affect coupled with the powerful sense of the long history of the place brought me to tears, something I don't remember happening in any other tourist site. A concert of a variety of classical and folk choral music was underway which we also enjoyed, and we spent an hour or so exploring this beautiful place with gorgeous live music in the background.

After the Pantheon we took cabs down past the Colosseum to The Basilica di San Clemente, a 12th century church with beautiful interiors that sits on two layers of earlier buildings. The site was been excavated and as we made our way down the floors under the church to see other structures from the 1st to 4th century, we could easily see the different "layers" of history that make up the site. While this was easy to see, it wasn't necessarily easy to understand, and we left the church with many unanswered questions about how this "layering" took place. Perhaps we'll get some answers when we tour the archaeological site of Ostia Antica today.

By then the boys were ready to go back "home" for some down time. As Robbie said, "I like see this stuff but it tires you out." So Ben took them for gelato and then back to the apartment while Jean and I went on a little art hunt. First we walked up a big hill and through a pretty park to find San Pietro in Vincoli, a church which houses Michelangelo's "Moses," a forty foot tall wall of marble sculpted for the tomb of Pope Julius which was thrilling to see. Then we took a cab to San Luigi dei Francesi where three huge and famous paintings by Caravaggio are hung. I didn't know these works but wanted to see them after reading in the guidebook that they are considered among the greatest paintings the world. The signage in the church wasn't great and it took us a while to find them in the church and "read" them, but it was fun to do this with Jean.

By the we were thinking of dinner and texted Ben and arranged to meet him at an oyster bar for a drink and appetizers. That was fun. Then we picked up the boys who had been happily using the wifi at the apartment and walked up to the pizzeria at the top of our street where we had a good dinner and wonderful gelato sundaes for desert. The back home only to find that the wifi had stopped working. Agh! A disappointing end to an otherwise perfect day.