I am JPond: Day 14: The adventure to Lake Como!

May 12th, 2012 ---

While shopping yesterday, Anita and I had talked about what we felt like doing on my last day with her. She told me Lake Como was actually only a short train ride away and a beautiful area!

I had heard about Lake Como, George Clooney has a house there - duhhhh! Haha Also, one of my friends from school, Keith, always talks about how one of his goals is to eventually have a house there. I've seen pictures too! Looks fantastic, so the idea of Lake Como thrilled me! Hell yeah! Let's go to Como! :)

We woke up at 930, exhausted. I had Elton John's Benny & the Jets song stuck in my head for some weird reason and Anita apparently had been repeating "forchetta" all night (meaning fork in Italian which we had talked about last night).

We quickly got ready, headed to the Garibaldi train station to head to Como! We grabbed our tickets, asked which train would take us directly there and hopped on.
While sitting on the train, Anita seemed to feel like something just wasn't right. We were on the right train, we were going to the wrong place.

This is how we ended up in Lecco.

Hahaha

We got off the train a few stops later and hopped on one that was going to Lecco, another city on Lake Como. She was thinking Lecco was the tourist city of Lake Como and Como was just the suburban one.

Well once arriving in Lecco, we quickly realized it was the other way around and that first train was the right one after all! Bogdan and Anita getting frustrated losing patience, me happy as a clam; Bogdan asked around to find out which bus we had to take to get to Como and from there, our adventure continued!

The three of us are riding in this cramped, hot old rickity bus- practically falling asleep obviously still tired from the night before. The bus takes approximately 45 minutes and when we arrive Bogdan is starving. There was a little super market across from the bus station, so we stop in there and decide o grab some snacks. We buy a few different types of bread, feta, brie, prosciutto and olives. Taking our goodies, we walk to the park just don't the street, finding a sunny, grassy patch where we spread out our blanket and pour our wine!

We enjoyed out nice little picnic for the majority of the afternoon and it couldn't have been any better! It was the most relaxing and enjoyable afternoon I've had my whole trip! I loved it! We were right on the lake, in the sunshine, eating our cheese, drinking our wine, listening to some music with some mini speakers that Anita had had and just kicked back. So fantastic!
While we were sitting on our blanket I noticed on the little barrier wall after the side walk, by the waters edge, was some graffiti. It didn't seem like offensive graffiti so I had asked Bogdan what it had said.
"Te lo ripeto all infinito: Sei unico al mondo." -- "To repeat for infinity, you are unique in the world."
Dawwwww.. How sweet! I snapped a picture and smiled, happy about my little finding.

At some point, it began to get a bit chilly and Anita, Bogdan and I decided it would be a good time to head back to Milano. We took the same path back, but first stopping at the Garden Gelateria and Restaurant that we had noticed before for some gelato and a drink.

After ordering our gelato, we proceeded to sit on the patio. Quickly we're we shoo'd away by the waiter who claimed that eating ice cream on their patio made their establishment look tacky.
Are you kidding?! The gelato place is part of your establishment! We were so put off by the attitude they gave us when explaining why we were allowed to order a drink with our ice cream that we decided to keep walking and go to the little place across from the bus & train station.

We checked what time our train to Milan would be departing and with either 15 or 40 minutes to kill, we decided to go over to the restaurant.
I sit down at our table, waiting for Anita and Bogdan when the waiter comes over to me.
"May I get a Pinot gringo, please?"
"Are you eating?"
"No, I think we'll just be drinking tonight."
And that's when he told us that we weren't allowed to stay unless we ordered food.
Really? What is with this place?!

Anita, Bogdan and I were so frustrated that I made the executive decision to say "Screw it! Let's go back to Milan where we are welcome!"

Bogdan & I take naps on the train. We arrive and make a quick stop at Castello, the castle of Milan. We debated going inside, though as cool as it was, we were all just anxious to get home. So we head straight back to Anita's house where Bogdan makes spaghetti and we shower and dress to head out for our last wine of the night and for me, last drink in Milano!

Anita had told me that around the corner was the Gold Restaurant by Dolce & Gabbana. I was dying to see it! So we decided that would be a fun place to head to.

It was beautiful! The whole place entirely architected in geometric shapes and completely brushed in gold. Gold liquor bottles, gold straws, gold bar top, gold-rimmed martini glasses, gold bar stools. You get the point, everything.. gold! It was so cool! Bogdan and Anita ordered their wine, I ordered some Prosecco as an alternative to the €25/glass champagne and we enjoyed some conversation till about 1am where we called it a night and went home to bed.

Successful day, golden night! Day 14 was fantastic! :)

In the morning, to Venice!