Week 5

 This week we are in Lake Como!

Sunday, Sept. 26

It's Sunday - a quiet and reflective day.

I work on the blog, John reads, writes and then goes out for a walk.

It's raining . . . hard!
Thunder and lightening, too.

Monday, Sept. 27

We prepare for Lake Como: 

packing, cleaning, ticketing for our trip.

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Tuesday, Sept. 28 - Lake Como, here we come!

Stazione de Santa Maria Novella

We get there 2 hours before our train leaves
so we wait on the westside steps

The fast train north
We only get a glimpse of the countryside.

We also get bad advice from the man we are sitting with on the train and end up in the Milano Centrale station instead of Milano Rogoredo.  We get 2 or 3 different instructions on which train to take, and the Eurail app has incomplete information, so we get off at the station the app says, there is no station office, we ask a boy on a bicycle if the next train goes to Como Lago. "Yes," he says, we take it and there is a conductor(?) who says to get off at the next stop with no indication that we will be in Lake Como yet.  We do get off at the next stop. There is a ticket office, where we are informed that we have arrived at Lake Como!  She gets out a map and shows us where the station (the one where we thought we would be getting off) is and where our hotel is.  It is an easy walking distance to the hotel.

Our hotel in Como. . .

Albergo Terminas Hotel

Our view

We walk and find a place to have some Prosecco

in the Piazza Duomo

After a leisurely walk, 

we go back to our hotel room. . . we left the light on

Wednesday, Sept. 29

Breakfast at the hotel and another walk around town

A view of the Duomo

We sit in Piazza Verdi
listening to the music from the
Giuseppe Verdi Theatre

Afternoon adventure . . . A trip on the funicular

We pass the train coming down
with boys that are
going home from school

At the top of the Funicular, there are some booths and a cafe. 

Further up, it appears to be a village center with a small grocery store and the church.

It is also the hub of some serious hiking. You can hike to the Lighthouse - it's only 2.5 kilometers up hill.

A lovely church a short walk 
from the top of the funicular

A view from the top

Going back down, down, down

The last look down to see the bay
where our hotel is

Afternoon refreshment at the hotel. . .
drinks, olives, chips and peanuts

Then, dinner at the hotel

Linguini and clams with proscecco to drink

Delicious - Delizioso

Thursday, Sept. 30 - Ferrying to Bellagio

After breakfast, we walk to the ticket booth for the Ferry to Bellagio

It is 10:30 am, so we have an hour and half before we leave for the 2 hour ride to Bellagio

so we take a walk to the park and the lake walk to see "Life Electric" by Daniel Liveskino

Viewing the
Monument to European Resistance

Piazza Cavour

Now on to the Ferry and Bellagio

On the ferry we make a new friend from Ethiopia.

She wants to help John for convention sites 

for ISCSC in West Africa

Arriving Bellagio Ferry Dock

It's a charming place with lots of alleys going up 

through the buildings with cafés and shops

We walk up through town to find a quiet place

La Pergola Restaurant & Hotel

a quiet, scenic respite

Now back over the hill to the dock . . .

Ciao

Back in Como we have a lite dinner back 

at Di Piace in the Piazza Duomo

The start and finish of dinner

(forgot to take a photo of our duck dishes)

Friday, Oct.1 - Now for the train trip back 

Our last look at Albergo Terminas Hotel - breakfast

We ordered Americanos instead of
Espressos for our last breakfast.
A pot of coffee, nice.

We needed to reserve seats for the "fast train" from Rogoredo to Firenze - tried yesterday to no avail.  We try again, tickets for the 5:40 pm train to Firenze is the only train today with seats available(?)

Even with a map of the lines, I cannot figure out which train we should be taking.

We will have a 3 hour layover in Rogoredo, so when we get to Rogoredo, I take the tickets to see if we can get seats on an earlier train - yes! A departure at 4:20 pm with seats facing each other. 

Less than a 2 hour wait, so we cross the street to a restaurant/café and order hamburgers.

From Rogoredo to Firenze is an easy hour and a half.

When we get to Florence we taxi home.

We are tired and clean up and go to bed.

Tomorrow a trip to Porta Romana to do laundry and groceries.

Saturday, Oct. 2

We sleep in, have coffee, gather laundry and grocery list. 

Around 2 pm, we walk down to Porta Romana with the laundry and empty shopping bags.

After laundry and groceries, we taxi home and make dinner.

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Next week - ???

Haven't thought about what to do. 

Maybe the Accademia Gallery to see David