BELLAGIO - LAKE COMO

The boat arrived to Bellagio - “The pearl of the Lario”, where we were all escorted off onto the small island. Bellagio is a Small Island neatly tucked away in Lake Como that instantly provides that Italian atmosphere. The old town stands on either side of Via Garibaldi, with a maze of picturesque streets that slope down the lake. From the harbour one can have excellent views of both branches of the lake.

The main building that became the main villa was a country house built in the 15th century on the ruins of a mediaeval castle. Bellagio would be the ideal place for authors, artists, scriptwriters and poets. Its relaxing, peaceful and filled with beautiful scenery that one cant stop looking at.

Off the boat cabbage patch gave us the usual times and meeting points before Lucy and I started climbing the picturesque streets.

Picturesque streets of Bellagio

We had limited time on this small island and there was so much we wanted to see however we realised we needed coffee before continuing. We chose a random bar to enter and instantly ordered coffee. We sculled the coffee and then figured its lunchtime so we might as well wine and dine here. Next thing you know were sitting at a table with a bottle of Chianti wine waiting for our pizzas.

Bellagio Italian Lunch - Pizza & Wine

Just as we were enjoying this beautiful peaceful atmosphere half the bloody tour group stormed in to wine and dine in here as well. FFS its not like this is the only restaurant on the island. Maybe they saw us wining and dining and thought this must be a good joint as we don’t usually wine and dine!

Were sipping our wine and all we can hear is the bloody annoying voice of Maria. We then spot the 81 years old walking in to wine and dine here followed by Tammy, her husband Joe and prison break chick.

I’m sipping on my Italian Chianti wine when Lucy reveals to me that she is going to lunge over at them any second with a knife. I’m in shock thinking she is going to stab the 81 year olds. Those poor people. This is when Lucy corrects me and tells me she means Maria and not the 81 year olds. This of course starts a laughing fit as I thought she wanted to stab the 81 year olds. Who the hell would want to kill those 81 year olds?

We stumbled out of the restaurant totally tipsy trying to take photos of Bellagio before returning to the meeting point. Once our photo shoot was over we decided to hit the stores for some goodies. I brought a Lake Como book while Lucy picked up a nice silk tie for her dad. We ran into Kath in the store who was trying to buy silk items as presents.

Kath & Spencer with special guest appearance by Ron

Lucy and I continued our walk down the streets when we spotted Good Old in a random store. We both dashed in immediately without thinking. Good Old was about to leave the store when Lucy and I convinced her to buy this scarf for 50 Euros. Yes we have it on camera as well. It was definitely a nice scarf but not for that price.

Good Old making a purchase special thanks to us

Once our good deed for the day was done we started walking towards the meeting point.

NV - I can get used to the Italian life in Bellagio....

While waiting for Cabbage Patch we did a few last minute photos. Prison break chick asked me to take a photo of her and her parents. There was something wrong with their camera every time I tried. Eventually we got the damn thing working and the photo was taken.

Then I started taking random shots of people from the tour group for my future freak list scrapbook.

NV's Final scenery shot from Bellagio

Finally the boat arrived and Cabbage Patch coordinated us onto it. We did another quick cruise around Lake Como admiring the views, villas and of course the locals.

The boat dropped us off at the wharf where we all ran to the nearest kiosk for last minute postcards and other goods. While doing our last minute shopping Umberto arrived and we were all escorted onto the bus for our long 2 hour drive back to Lake Maggiore.