Lake Como Part 2

I wasn't even terrified but I think I should have been: being stuck surrounded by millions of tonnes of rock hard ice that was constantly moving! Finley sensed the danger and insisted we leave pronto.

That meant I had to carry Finley and Maja back up the 400 steps to the base of the gondola. I am getting some exercise.

It was then back down the mountain in the train and into the car to continue on the drive. We were pretty behind schedule by then so it was full steam ahead to the Mont Blanc tunnel. We popped out the other side of the tunnel in Italy and were promptly blown away by the view of Mont Blanc, as Finley said,

“Are we in Italy now?”

“Yes”

“They have big mountains in Italy.”

You better believe it.

So then it was dinner in an obscure place that Simon and Rachelle had previously been to. A bit of local knowledge is pretty handy as it was fantastico. We were all practising our Italian now and seeing Ben does Grade 1 Italian we figured it was fair enough for him to do all the talking.

He didn't see it that way.

To get to the place we had booked on the shores of Lake Como meant a lot of autostrada driving and you know all those stereotypes about Italian drivers being crazy?

Absolutely true! They are f*cking nuts.

These roads are no Eastern freeway in Melbourne. They are a black strip of death and there are no prisoners. I was trying to again put on a brave face but failing as I jumped across two lanes dodging in and out of trucks and Audi S8s. Now Simon will have no idea what I'm talking about and will say I need to go to the School of Chopper Read but he has gone native; he's become one of them! Simon thinks 120 km/h is parking speed. Before I had sworn violently once Simon had disappeared up the road weaving in and out of traffic being true to his inner Italian and I had lost him. And he did this in a family Volkswagen.

I'm still shaking.

Anyway we eventually caught up to the Volksy arrived about midnight in this beautiful little town of Argegno, carried the kids in to bed and woke up the next day to view Lake Como in all its splendour.

 

View from the apartment

I can see why George Clooney lives around the corner. What another exceptional place. Old school Italian and not touristy at all.

We spent the next few days indulging in yet more ice cream and managed to squeeze in Ben's birthday with a lovely cake bought from a local shop (thanks S and R!).

We had a swim at the local beach, ok bit of grass leading down to some pebbles into the water, where we ate pizza for dinner.