Bellagio - Lake Como

We Arrived in Paris at 6:05am, once again we got the top deck of the Air France Airbus and enjoyed a very peaceful flight filled with wine, cheese, and movies. After landing we struggled to find the Lufthansa counter but a nice lady from AirFrance directed us to a bus that would eventually drop us off at terminal one. After what felt like an hour of hot sweaty bus ride through the bowels of Charles De Gaul airport we finally made it to terminal one, which is basically the ghetto of CDG. Low ceilings, errie lighting, a strange tunnel with a long flat escalator (I’m not sure what you call them when they don’t go up or down?) Upon reaching the top floor, where we hoped to find the ticket counter, we were very disappointed to discover baggage claim and no way back down to the ground floor. Finally with heavy backpacks in tow and sweaty faces we found the exit to the elevators that would take us down. After printing our boarding passes we made it to the gate and boarded our Lufthansa flight to Milan-Malpensa. Once we got there we claimed our bags in record time and headed out to find a taxi to the Centrale train station…. To make a long story short, we got all the way to the train station to find out that it would be cheaper and quicker to have our taxi driver take us to Bellagio.

Our hotel, the Excelsior Splendide

Our hotel was great, it was right in the center of Bellagio just a street across from the waterfront. The only negative was the “Shath”…a bathtub with only a handheld shower head and no door or shower curtain…of course I nearly flooded the place on my first go. During the day we strolled the little cobbled stairs and streets, I found some a great buy in vintage boutique (the jewelry in Bellagio is beautiful!) and of course we snacked on gelato whenever the urge came. We lunched in the same place everyday, because it was close to our hotel, had ample shaded outdoor seating, and a large menu with delicious pizzas.

We spent the first evening just strolling around getting our bearings, but the next day we headed out on the water to check out the scenery and the most beautiful villa on all of Lake Como, Villa del Balbianello. This was the place the Second Episode of Stars Wars was filmed and 007 Casino Royale.

I plan on living here someday.

We lounged by the hotel pool for most of the second day, only getting up to take a dip or to grab some lunch. It was so relaxing to just loaf around after being on the go everyday in Africa.

We left Bellagio via a ferry to Varenna and then a train to Milan and then to Monterosso.

Ciao Bellagio, I'll come looking for George Clooney again soon!