Lake Como

Going to a foreign country where you don't speak the language and staying in a remote area with no information or ability to contact the outside world is now checked off my life list!
Took two trains from Milan to Lake Como, spent the afternoon wandering around Lake Como and then boarded the bus to our B&B. We've taken the local country bus before so we were well aware that the driver doesn't stop at every stop but we didn't know when we should be stopping, our instructions said 1 hour, luckily a local man helped us out. Someone was waiting for us, she spoke little English walked us to our apartment and left. Ok now what? We had picked up a few groceries in Como but still needed dinner, let's go for a walk. 45 minutes later we happen upon two older couples who inform us of an open restaurant, perfect! It's beautiful lake side seating and while we drink wine and chat we watch darkness roll in to this beautiful slice of the world.
After some trial and error with bus tickets the next morning we arrive in Bellagio, "the point that divides the wind". It's a high end tourist town with villas known for their gardens, and a major stopping point for all the ferries. We have no idea what to do so we buy a midland ferry pass and off we go. We spend the day hopping to pretty towns along the lake, stopping for gelato at one, lunch at another. We had toyed with the idea of taking a day trip to Switzerland but after adding up all the transportation costs (€46!) we decided against it. Our day ended with a quiet night of reading at our attic apartment.
Since we weren't going to Switzerland we had nothing planned for our last day so we decided to take advantage of our little apt set up and have a lazy morning lounging around where Michael could have as many cups of coffee as his heart desired. We ventured back to Bellagio, went on a walk, met some travelers, hit up an *apertivo and had an elegant lakeside dinner where I had the best raviolis of my life, pear and cheese, yummy!!
All in all our first BnB experience was a win. I hope the other two we booked work out.

*apertivo is wine happy hour, for a set price you get a glass of wine and a buffet of cheeses, meats, etc. Michael has been dying to go but our timing never worked out, until now. This one was great because they also had Internet.

Pics: arriving via boat to the huge 800 resident town of Varenna
- view of the lake near our apt, notice the snow covered Alps in the back!
- Mr. Blue while we were on our walk in Bellagio