My husband and I have just returned from a wonderful week-long trip to Italy. We have three school-age children, and it is difficult to be gone for longer than a week at this point in our lives. Thus we have elected to see Italy a little at a time.

This was our fourth time in Italy. On our first visit we went to Florence and Tuscany. The second time we were in Portofino and Santa Margherita on a one-day stop during a Mediterranean cruise. We went to Rome, Pompeii and Venice on our third visit. This last time we went to the Cinque Terre and Lake Como.

Many thanks to those here who have posted about their trips to Italy. I have gleaned so much great information from this board. Special mention to adventureseeker for her great report on her time in the Cinque Terre.

What follows is taken from the text of emails that I sent home to family and friends while we were abroad. Essentially the same report but with pictures interspersed is posted on my blog at: http://weaselsjourney.blogspot.com/search/label/Italy

Wednesday, September 17

Robert and I left a small tree’s worth of instructions and notes for the sitter and the kids before departing DFW on a noon flight bound for JFK. After a short layover, we were on our way to Milan.

Thursday, September 18

We landed at Malpensa airport, about 30 miles outside Milan, retrieved our bags and made our way to the Malpensa Express, a train that carried us to the Cardorna station. On the map this station appeared to be close to Milan’s Duomo (their beautiful church) so we wandered outside in hopes of seeing it. We had no idea which way we were oriented, however. Since we were schlepping our suitcases, when we didn’t find the Duomo after venturing down a couple of streets, we elected to return underground and take the Metro (green line) to Milan Centrale station.

Milan Centrale is a beautiful, grand old train station. There’s evidently some renovation going on right now because there was a lot of scaffolding on the exterior, but it was still very pretty. I purchased our train tickets to Vernazza at a self-serve kiosk, and after a little confusion about which platform we were seeking, we found and boarded our train.

The journey from Milan to Vernazza took about 4½ hours and involved several changes of train (in Genoa and Sestri Lavente). We were able to sleep intermittently on the train (especially on the last two legs when the train was less crowded), but Robert had to set his cell phone alarm for 10 minutes prior to our scheduled stops because I was so afraid we would sleep through the town where we were supposed to disembark!

The last leg of our trip looked to be a short one, but that train stopped in every tiny town between Sestri Lavente and Vernazza so it took about 45 minutes. It was a pretty ride as the train meandered along the coast of the Ligurian Sea, but I began to wonder if we were ever going to reach the Cinque Terre. Finally we came to Monterosso al Mare, the first of the five little fishing villages that compose the Cinque Terre. We just barely caught a glimpse of its beach before we continued on to Vernazza.

Vernazza is a tiny town, population 500, but as we disembarked the train and set foot onto the main street that winds from the train station to the harbor, it felt like the population was 5000, with 99% of the inhabitants being senior citizens dressed in cruise wear! The streets were packed. I could tell Vernazza was a cute town, but it was so overrun with tourists on our arrival, that it held little charm for me.

We checked into our room at Albergo Barbara on the main square. It was not fancy but very clean with a nice modern bathroom and a fabulous view of the harbor. I was SO tempted to take a nap, as it was now 3:00 and we had been up for some 26 hours, but I was afraid I would sleep too long and miss out on our precious time here.
(I should note that I did VERY well hauling my suitcase and grossly overpacked carry-on duffel on and off trains, through the streets of Milan, and up and down stairs in Vernazza, including the 63 steps to our room. This is significant as I am usually the first one to let someone else carry my bags or to suggest that we use a valet!)

We left our room and set out to explore Vernazza. We stopped first for a piece of focaccia bread with pesto, a local specialty. Robert bought a beer and I picked up a glass of wine in a little bar on the main square called Burgus Bar. They let me carry the glass outside so we could sit by the water. We enjoyed the people watching – lots of scantily clad swimmers and sunbathers in the little beach and harbor. We especially liked seeing scores of tourists boarding tender boats and departing Vernazza!

As the crowds thinned, the charm of the town began to peek out from the shuttered windows and alleyways. We climbed up to the town’s old castle, which afforded sweeping views of the town and sea. As we descended from the castle, we purposefully wandered through a warren of tiny alleys. My guidebook said that this interior arcade below the castle was designed to aid in fleeing attacks. I was delighted to discover that a real and vibrant town lay behind the façade of the main drag. There was laundry hanging between buildings back there, bowls of pet food set outside beautifully painted doors, mismatched pots of plants and flowers on front stoops, even little Italian ladies toting home fresh loaves of bread and bags of local produce.

By the time we emerged onto the main street again, the crowds had dissipated and we enjoyed walking around the square. We ran into a couple who had been on our trains from Milan, and they agreed that the scores of people we experienced on our arrival had been a bit overwhelming.

We walked into a pretty harborside church, and I lit a candle for my dear friend Amanda who died six years ago this week. I also knelt to pray in one of the pews. Four or five ladies were also kneeling and reciting prayers in Italian. There was something profoundly moving in just silently listening to them, their words echoing off the old stones and beams, and praying along, even though I couldn’t understand anything they said.

We watched a beautiful sunset over the harbor and then did our best to stay awake until a reasonable dinner hour (I typed on my laptop while Robert watched an episode of Heroes on his computer). We dined al fresco at Trattoria da Sandro, a small café on the main street close to the train station. Sitting next to us were two delightful ladies from South Africa and England. We conversed congenially with them while enjoying a very good meal and a bottle of local red wine. The spaghetti ai frutti di mare, served for two in an enormous bowl, was delicious. After dinner we bought some hazelnut and pistachio gelato and walked around the town square.

I fell asleep quickly to the sounds of waves gently lapping against the shore outside our window.

To be continued...

I am so looking forward to reading your report. Last year I took this same trip too and loved loved loved it, so much so my bf now wants to go next May.

I was glad to see your post. We are leaving for our trip next Tues. WE are going to Rome, Florence, Tuscany and then, Vernazza...also staying at the Albergo Barbara. What was your weather like. We won't be to the CT until the 17th and 18th....but we just can't wait. Thanks for your info.

Hi,

Thanks for writing and look forward to the rest. Hope to get to the CT someday, but for now... I'll "see it" through your writing.

Paul

Looking forward to more!

I am glad to see your report on this trip. I was thinking of flying into Milan and going to CT but the multiple trains sounds daunting after a long overnight flight. Would you do it that way again or find an alternative?

I think it's easier to get to the CT by train from Florence or Pisa. So if I were going there again, I might fly from the US to London or Paris and connect from there. Changing trains is tedious but not terribly complicated. Looking back, I don't remember much of it! I must have been in a jet-lagged stupor.

Friday, September 19

We slept soundly last night (well, I did anyway – Robert said he woke up around 2:00 to the sounds of drunk Americans partying in the square and locals yelling at them out their windows to be quiet. He said it was like a scene from a movie. I completely slept through that!).

We got up around 8:00 and discovered it was raining outside. We were planning to hike the seven-mile trail that connects the five villages of the Cinque Terre today. We (or more accurately, I) had some reservations about hiking in the rain, but we dressed and left to check out the conditions. We stopped and bought a couple of pastries and some drinks before setting out for the first town: Monterosso al Mare.

The town where we stayed was the second in the string of villages, so my plan was to hike to the first town and then take a boat to the last and hike back from there. I had read that the hike from Vernazza to Monterosso was the most difficult so it seemed best to start with that one while we (again, I use the term we loosely) were fresh.

The “trailhead” was an alley off Vernazza’s main street. We climbed a long row of steps before arriving at the little wooden shack where they sold day passes for the Cinque Terre trails. I vaguely hoped that we might find the trail closed as the rain was coming down pretty steadily now, but no such luck. The guy happily accepted our 10€ and off we went.

We climbed up stairs and more stairs, stopping, thankfully, from time to time to admire the view of Vernazza from above. The rain continued. The path was pretty slick which probably worked to my favor as we couldn’t walk too fast. Once the path leveled out, I rather enjoyed the walk. The views were lovely, and the vegetation along the path was lush and interesting. About halfway along there was a picnic table with several cats napping nearby. Someone had left large buckets of cat food with instructions for hikers to make sure the cats’ bowls had fresh food and water. We continued on, only occasionally encountering other hikers. Several parts of the trail were so narrow or confined that only one person could pass through at a time. I imagined that those got a bit tedious when the trail was quite crowded (as I understand it usually is).

Ever the prepared Eagle Scout, Robert wore rain pants and a waterproof jacket. I own no such apparel and was clad in khakis and a windbreaker. As we began to descend toward Montorosso, the rain had slowed, but my pants were soaked through. I had to pull at them in order to bend my legs to go down steps, and then my pants stuck wherever I had moved them! I was quite eager for Robert to take my picture so that my mother would believe that I actually went on this hike and in the rain even, but the pictures of me on this trail were so horrifying that I quickly deleted them from the camera.

The steps going down into Monterosso seemed to go on and on. About a third of the way down (though we had no idea how much further we had to go), we met a none-too-fit-or-young Italian couple, leaning against a wall, quite out of breath and smoking cigarettes! They gestured to us trying to find out how much longer the trail went up. Robert kindly communicated that the path wouldn’t get easier for quite a while, and the woman began to fuss at her husband (with all of those classic Italian hand gestures). I gathered the hike had been his idea…

We left them arguing on the stairs and continued on. Soon Monterosso came into view – hooray! This town had a nice beach area, and the water was so clear and beautiful – a bright blue-green even with the sky so overcast.

As we arrived in Monterosso, we wandered around in search of a place to stop for lunch. We ended up at a place called Fast Bar because I spied a plateful of bruschetta with pesto and tomatoes that looked heavenly. Robert and I settled into a table and peeled off our wet jackets (my pants were actually dripping water onto the floor!). Glasses of local red wine and the delicious bruschetta and green salad warmed us up quite nicely. We enjoyed some pleasant conversation with a couple from Canada sitting next to us. She was wearing a Vancouver marathon shirt, and Robert being the veteran marathon runner, asked her about it. The woman had just completed a marathon in France that had wine tastings along the route. Robert was intrigued by that concept.

After lunch we were glad to see that the rain had stopped. We explored Monterosso a bit more before boarding a boat and heading to Riomaggiore.

My sister had been to the Cinque Terre several years ago and highly recommended that we take a boat and see the towns from the water. This was a marvelous suggestion as it afforded different views than can be enjoyed from land.

Riomaggiore was a nice town, but it was quite crowded and we didn’t linger long before picking up the trail there. The leg from Riomaggiore to Manarola was quite short, flat and paved and ran completely along the sea. Known as the Via dell Amore (or Lover’s Walk), it was way too packed with tour groups today to seem very romantic. We were in the next town of Manarola in less than twenty minutes.

Manarola was also busy but seemed to have more locals going about their daily work than Riomaggiore did. We strolled through and then picked up the trail again on the other side. The path from Manarola to Corniglia was also largely flat and followed the coastline. About halfway to Corniglia, though, we were disappointed to discover the rest of the trail was closed due to “dangerous” conditions. We could see the rest of the path, and it didn’t appear too risky to us, certainly not anything like what we had hiked this morning, but there was no arguing with a locked gate so we turned around. We had to wait quite a while for a train, but at last one arrived and we were on our way to Corniglia.

Corniglia’s train station is at sea level, but the town is way up a hill. I barely had time to wonder about how one traveled from one to the other when we came to an enormous flight of stairs. We climbed up and up and up until I thought I was going to pass out. Robert kept promising me that we were *almost there,* but then I would glance up and see that was not the case at all! When we made it to the top, there was a sign congratulating us on having climbed the 382 steps to the beautiful town of Corniglia.

I really liked Corniglia. It had a charming little town square with local schoolchildren playing ball and running around. We wandered down a quaint alley in search of the gelato that had been my carrot for getting up those stairs. The gelato was delicious, but perhaps even bad ice cream might have hit the spot at that point.

It was now almost 5:30, and we had one last segment of the trail to conquer: from Corniglia to Vernazza. I had visions of this one being flat or downhill since we were up so high and Vernazza was at sea level, but that was NOT the case. We hiked up and up some more (and of course I never complained – ha ha), and I began to despair that we were not going to make it back to Vernazza before sundown. Ever the optimist, Robert assured me we had plenty of time, but I noticed he insisted on hiking in front of me, I think to set a faster pace than I would have. On this path I think we only encountered five other hikers. Everyone else had clearly quit for the day! Finally, though, the path began to slope downward, and Vernazza came into view right as the sun was setting. We were rewarded with a beautiful view and entered our town with much satisfaction at our day’s accomplishments.

We returned to our room and changed. A hot shower never felt so welcome! I realized too late that our room did not have a hair dryer, so I had to go to dinner with wet hair (lovely, I assure you).

We ate at Ristorante Incadase da Piva, down the same alley as the trail to Corniglia. Our server mixed up our order a bit, but we still enjoyed a good meal of red wine, pasta and mussels. I was worn out and knew we needed to get up at a good time tomorrow and pack, so we passed on dessert and called it a day.

Stay tuned… tomorrow we head to Lake Como

Loving your report!! We are going to CT in May and I can hardly wait!

Thanks for the report. We were there at the end of October. The weather was great but earlier rain had knocked out part of the trail so we had to circumnavigate with the train also.

Saturday, September 20

Last night I learned that the Internet Point in Vernazza had 24 hour WiFi, so I purchased a login name and password. This morning I took my laptop bright and early and sat on a step outside the café and uploaded pictures and worked on my blog. It ended up being a very rewarding time as I was able to watch the town come to life. There were men hauling concrete up the steep steps next to me using a clever little hand-steered machine with bulldozer treads that could climb the stairs. Several cats lazed happily on a mat in the sun, and some locals chatted animatedly over morning cups of espresso at the café across the street.

We packed our bags, bade a sad goodbye to Albergo Barbara and Vernazza and caught the 10:27 train to Monterosso. From Monterosso we took another train to Milan Centrale (pronounced “Chen-trolley” – I love to say that word!) then transferred to a train bound for Varenna, on Lake Como. This last leg only took about an hour, with the last 30 minutes running alongside Lake Como and affording stunningly beautiful scenery.

Arriving in Varenna, we pulled our suitcases down a hill to the ferry dock. We had about 15 minutes before the ferry was due, and as luck would have it, there was a gelato shop directly across from the ferry dock.

The ride across the lake to the town of Bellagio was beautiful. Lake Como is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and little villages are tucked into little coves and up hills.

We disembarked in Bellagio around 3:00. The streets were bustling with tourists. We pulled our bags down the lakeside promenade past glitzy shops and sidewalk cafés to Salita Plinio. The *streets* off the main promenade were tiny alleys comprised of steep steps, and Hotel Centrale was situated about halfway up one of these.

The hotel had a beautiful quiet courtyard with a stone path leading to the entrance. Giacomo, the owner, greeted us warmly on our arrival and showed us to our room. Our room was clean and spacious with pretty furnishings and a lovely terrace with a “between building” lake view.

We enjoyed strolling around Bellagio, exploring the little shops and alleyways, before stopping for a good dinner of salad, pizza margherita and red wine at Ristorante Antico Pozza.

Sunday, September 21

Hotel Centrale had a lovely sunroom where they served breakfast each morning. After we ate a leisurely breakfast and visited with a couple from Maryland, we caught a batello (slow boat) across the lake to the town of Tremezzo.

Our first destination was Villa Carlotta, a spectacular lakeside house dating back to 1690. We toured the house on our own. The interior was very nice (I especially liked a sculpture of Cupid and Psyche displayed prominently in one of the salons), but the real star of Villa Carlotta were its extensive gardens. One of the villa’s owners had amassed a collection of plants and trees from all over the world, and we saw azaleas, rhododendron, bamboo, palms, even a very large Sequoiah tree.

We spent at least an hour exploring the gardens before setting out on foot for the town of Lenno. This walk was a mixture of beautiful lake views, lovely private villas, quaint towns, parks where groups of children were playing and laughing, and harrowing stretches of road with absolutely no sidewalk or shoulder and scores of speeding Italian cars, buses and motorcycles that were heedless of foolish foreign pedestrians. We laughed about it later, but at the time that part of the experience did seem too amusing.

Upon arriving in Lenno (about four miles from Tremezzo), we ran across the Maryland couple from breakfast. We visited with them for a bit before heading up to Villa Balbianello.

The walk to Villa Balbianello was quite long and involved a lot of steep gravel roads, but wow, was it worth it; I thought it was one of the most beautiful places I’d ever seen. Built in the late 18th century on the tip of the Lavedo promontory, the villa was a gorgeous yellow stucco structure with meticulously manicured grounds and vast elegant terraces with stunning views of Lake Como. The interior of the house was accessible only by private tour, but we were able to peek into most rooms and admire their handsome furnishings. A scene in Star Wars episode II was filmed here (it was Padua’s estate in the movie). We boarded a 5:00 batello in Lenno and returned to Bellagio.

We ran into our friends from Maryland again while walking around Bellagio and also in the Internet café by our hotel. The Internet café had a gorgeous dark-paneled bar on its ground level where they served a large plate of local antipasto (meats, cheese, roasted tomatoes, etc.) with the purchase of a glass of wine. Our Maryland friends pulled up some chairs at a table with us, and we shared stories and compared travel notes.

Dinner was simple but tasty bowls of pasta at Caffé Vecchio Borga.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in a church and caught the tail end of a lovely harpsichord and violin concert.

flymeaway,

I'm really enjoying your report! Kind of horrifying though to hear that cruise ships now make Vernazza a stop! It was crowded enough when we were there 8 years ago. I can't imagine what it must have been like.

Good for you to hike the whole trail. We started in Riomaggorie and pooped out by Vernazza. Yes, I thought the section from Corniglia to Vernazza was tough too, and I'm a hiker!

Do continue!

Monday, September 22

This morning Robert and I did some shopping in Bellagio. The town was amazingly quiet, a nice change from the crowds that clogged the streets over the weekend.

We stopped at Gilardoni Alimentari, a tiny grocery store and meat and cheese shop, and picked up some bread, fresh pesto, roast beef and cheese. We walked north of town to Punto Spartivento, which was situated at the end of a peninsula with dramatic views of the lake and mountains: the perfect spot for a picnic! We stayed here quite a while, soaking up the sunshine and admiring the scenery.

Returning to our hotel, I elected to sit by the lake and read while Robert set off on a hike above Bellagio and to some nearby towns. The weather was beautiful – clear and cool – and perfect for being outside. I read 84, Charing Cross Road, a gem of a book that had me alternating between laughter and tears.

I had booked 7:30 dinner reservations in Varenna, and we took a 5:30 ferry over there. We explored the charming, sleepy “old town” area and then stopped for a drink by the lake.

Il Cavatappi was a tiny restaurant tucked back off the water on a quiet pedestrian street. It had been highly recommended by several sources who also indicated that tables were hard to come by, so I’d made our reservation several weeks ago. Sure enough, there were only four tables when we were there (three parties of two and one party of six), and at least twenty people stopped by after we were seated, only to be turned away and told the restaurant was booked for the rest of the week.

This was truly a dream meal. Only two people work at Il Cavatappi: the chef, Mario, and a girl who served the tables. Mario frequently came out from the kitchen to make recommendations and to inquire about everyone’s experience. Our food was delicious. I had a fabulous ‘insalata di Mario’ with lettuce, apple, bacon and a tasty mustard dressing. Robert had the salad mista but wished he’d ordered my salad, I think! We shared an order of pasta with fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil, which was also wonderful. For our main courses, I had pork with a leek-anise sauce, which was fine but not nearly as succulent as the beef that Robert ordered. We were nowhere close to hungry for *dolce,* but I could not resist Mario’s crème caramel, my very favorite dessert. It didn’t disappoint.

We were surprised that it was after 10 when we paid our check; the meal had been delightfully paced. The last ferries back to Bellagio were at 10:35 and 12:55, so despite needing to WALK back to Bellagio in order to work off our delicious meal, we hurried back to the dock.

(The boats here are interesting. They are very prompt, pulling up to the dock, letting passengers off and on and then departing, all in less than about two minutes. If you aren’t there waiting to board, you will “miss the boat.”)

Tuesday, September 23

This morning we awoke to light rain. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then took a brisk walk around town. I spent the day writing postcards, uploading pictures and working on my trip journal and reading. Robert read for a while then left to have a panini sandwich at Caffé Vecchio Borga.

In the afternoon we wandered over to the Internet Point for a glass of wine and hors d’oeuvres. We ended up staying there for a while, enjoying a nice visit with the owner and other travelers in the bar area, and we ate enough of their delicious antipasto spread to count it as dinner.

Stopping back at our favorite gelato shop, we got scoops of cinnamon and pistachio gelato. Robert took me on a long walk to the Lago di Lecco side of Bellagio, where he had walked yesterday. The night was very dark, but the cobbled and walled path was well lit. This little area was very quiet and charming with a local feel and a lovely harbor.

Today was a very uneventful but much-needed ‘down day.’

I am enjoying your trip report. And, I understand about needing a "down" day on trips. I do the same & feel re-invigorated afterwards. Lake Como is still on my list of places to visit so I'm reading your report with great interest. More please!

Wednesday, September 24

Our last full day in Italy!

We ate another wonderful breakfast in the Hotel Central sunroom. My standard by now was a croissant with strawberry jam, yogurt and either tea or caffé latte (espresso with a LOT of steamed milk). Boy, do I love the yogurt in Europe; it seems so much tangier than what I can buy in the States. Robert usually had granola with milk, some meat or cheese and a caffé latte. We always enjoyed comparing touring notes over breakfast with other guests staying at the Hotel Centrale, usually our friends from Maryland and the three other couples traveling with them.

We took some extra rolls from breakfast and stopped at Gilardoni Alimentari for some more of their delicious fresh pesto, a Coke and a bottle of water. Then we boarded the 10:30 ferry to Cadenabbia, just across the lake from Bellagio, near Villa Carlotta. We had seen a church perched high above the lake and had learned from a couple we met at dinner that there was a nice walking trail that led to it.

Sure enough, after disembarking in Cadenabbia, we saw signs pointing the way to Chiesa di San Martino. We followed the arrows up little alleyways, and just a few blocks from the lake, we began to have a sense of being far away from the bustling crowds of tourists. Wandering down the little cobbled walkways of the town of Griante, we passed very few others until we came upon a truck selling cheeses, where some locals were crowded around its counter purchasing their selections.

Shortly after that we entered a more rural area with some cows grazing in a fenced hillside meadow, and we encountered a wizened Italian woman fussing and gesturing with her cane at a herd of goats and a dog she was leading down the path (only the dog seemed to be remotely listening to her).

Our trail continued up and up and we began to mark our progress by the increasingly distant view of the lake as well as the Stations of the Cross that were set up at intervals along the trail. (I’m not sure I would be motivated to hike an hour to church every Sunday, but I could appreciate how the isolated walk, with its beautiful views and these Stations of the Cross with their mosaic pictures and scripture verses could be a wonderful preparation for worship.)

I began to get warm and was wishing I’d brought something to pull my hair back. Robert stopped and pulled off several pieces of vine and braided them together into something for me to use as a ponytail holder. I was so impressed! The Eagle Scout skills came in handy yet again.

About two-thirds of the way up, we came to a small chapel that seemed to be a memorial to area soldiers who had died in World War I and II. This was a nice place to stop for a minute and admire the view.

After slightly more than an hour on the trail the Chiesa di San Martino came into view. We opened a small iron gate to the church grounds and then climbed up to the church itself. The building was much smaller than it appeared from the lake. We were disappointed that we were not able to go inside, but we could look through a tiny window and see that the interior was rustic but pretty.

We staked out a spot on the hill for our picnic and sat down to enjoy our pesto and bread. The view was spectacular! Another couple offered to take our picture, and we ended up hiking back down with them. They were from Des Moines, but he was born, raised and educated in Texas. We had a lovely visit with them, and the walk back to the lake passed very quickly.

Arriving back in Cadenabbia, we decided to walk to the neighboring town of Tremezzo and catch the hydrofoil (“rapido”) to the town of Como at the far south end of the lake. At the dock we ran into the three couples traveling with our Maryland friends and had a nice conversation with them while we all awaited our boats.

The ride down to Como was beautiful. I especially liked seeing Villa Balbianello from the lake. Lake Como became more populated and congested as we approached the town of Como.

We got off the boat and walked around Como for just about a half an hour. Como was much larger than any of the other towns on the lake and had a definite urban feel. There was a nice pedestrian-only area with some upscale shops and a large duomo (church), but I much preferred the smaller, quainter towns.

We climbed back aboard the “rapido” boat and returned to Bellagio. Upon returning to the Hotel Centrale, we stopped to talk to Giacomo, the owner, about our impending departure in the morning. He kindly looked up the hydrofoil and train schedules and made arrangements for his son, Marcelo, to bring breakfast to our room that night since we would be leaving before the appointed breakfast hour of 8:30.

We had dinner at a restaurant called Baba Yaga that we had seen while walking to Punto Spartivento. We were pleasantly surprised to find two parties from our hotel sitting on either side of us: a young couple from Australia on a five-week holiday in Europe and two of the couples traveling with our Maryland friends. Our dinner was salad and pizzas and some local wine. It was delicious. We had wonderful conversations with those sitting around us, finding even more than a mutual love of travel to connect all of us. One of my favorite things about Bellagio was all of the nice people we met who were also visiting there.

We returned to our room quite content with our meal and our time at Lake Como and turned our thoughts to packing for home. We found a wonderful tray of breakfast foods and a tiny coffee maker on our bed.

Thursday, September 25

We awoke early so that we could catch the 6:45 rapido to Como. There were a few other early bird travelers on our boat, but the majority of its passengers were high school students from around the lake heading to class (I learned that most of the towns on the lake had an elementary school, but the only high school was in the town of Como). They were a lively group, and it was fun to watch how they had different sections of the boat staked out; most of the kids headed straight for a particular area as soon as they boarded.

Arriving in Como around 7:30, we hurried to the train station (about a ten-minute walk) to catch a 7:47 train for Malpensa. We changed trains in Saronno and arrived at the airport at 9:07. Our flight was at 10:35, but fortunately we did not encounter any long lines at check-in or security and had plenty of time before our departure.

We flew from Milan to JFK, had a four-hour layover there where I had some of the worst nachos ever created (lesson learned: don’t satisfy cravings for Mexican food until back in Texas), and then arrived back in Dallas around 9:30. By the time we got home we’d been traveling 23 hours! All well worth it, though, for the privilege of visiting such beautiful places and the joy of seeing our children again.

Wonderful report. Many thanks.

Great report! Thouroughly enjoyed reading it.


Paul

Bookmarking!

Thanks for the report. We are planning to spend three nights in Vernazza (arriving late in the afternoon) and spliting the hike into two days.

Great trip report. I also loved my time in the CT! Oh, thanks for reminding me of the 382 steps that I had to climb to get to Corniglia! Brings me back to the hot May day where I felt like I was going to pass out on the way to the top! But didn't it feel great to finally get there and see that sign?

Thanks for bringing me back to the beautiful Cinque Terre!