Day 1 Lake Como

Day 1/2- Lake Como and travel to Florence
Afer Ben and I met up in Milan we took the train to Como. From the town of Como we took a hour ferry ride up the lake to our stop, Varenna. The mountains cascading into the water with small traditional Italian towns spotting the coast was incredbile. And as if God was trying to show off, you could even see snow capped mountains in the distance. It is one of those sites you never really think exist until you see it. (We will post pictures as soon as we can get them loaded on to a computer). When we got to Varenna we headed towards our hotel which was about a half mile out of town on an incline. This made for an amazing view but also for one sweaty/greasy walk on the hot day with our backpack luggage as we hiked up the hill. Once we settled in we headed down to local restaurant for dinner and walked along the lake shore. Even after 2 courses we still had room for gelato. We sat and watched the sunset into the mountains with one of the largest helpings of ice cream I have ever seen. Ben splurged for a banana split and it came out in the shape of a massive dolphin complete with a cherry in its mouth. Because of jet lag and now food coma, Ben could barely keep his eyes open so we headed up to the hill again to our hotel. We were pleased to find that the walk was much easier without the packs or the blazing heat. Our hotel suggested we check out their panorama elevator. This was about a 6 story elevator (300 steps) that led to a smaller building up the mountain that had a few rooms and a huge balcony over looking the lake. We took a bunch of pictures and took in the view before heading to bed.

The next morning we got up early, enjoyed breakfast on the terrace, went back up the elevator to take in the view, and then headed to the train station to head to Florence.

Emily