Cruising Lower Lake Como

Aboard the Lago di Como" botello" for a 2 hour cruise to Bellagio

One of my challenges for this blog is "brevity" and if you know me personally, you know how hard that is!

Today's post is extremely difficult for that reason.  I took over 150 photos during the 6 hour excursion from Como to Bellagio and back.  The weather was perfect as the boat stopped at the many beautiful villages that dot the Lower Lario area.  I hope to paint many of these scenes when I return to the "real world"in November.

In the meantime, here are a few highlights!

One of our first stops was at Cernobbio.  Below is the Villa d'Este which was once the residence of King George IV of England's wife.  It was turned into a luxury hotel in 1873.  Many of the important European summits are held here.  The view from the water was spectacular!

Next we have a view of our village of Laglio from the water.  The steeple is the church of San Giorgio and our B&B is a few steps away in the piazza.  The large home on the left with the tall cyprus tree is George Clooney's villa.  He is very much at home in the area and everybody knows him.

The villa above is the home of the owner of Virgin Airlines.  It was difficult to decipher all of this because all the comments given on the boat were in Italian.  I read about this somewhere and put 2 and 2 together.  I call this my "postcard" scene!

Our final destination was Bellagio (very different from the LasVegas version).  The streets were lined with trendy shops and eateries, but with all the crowds of people flocking from the boats, all the restaurants closed at 3:00!  Guess those Italians don't care about their "bottom line" when it comes to their "siestas!