Lago di Como e Milano

This weekend my roommates and I headed up north, to Lago di Como (Lake Como, very close to where I was with my family 2 years ago, at Lake Garda). We had a bit of an adventure at the train station in Firenze – but when isn’t traveling an adventure? – and ended up paying for first class tickets because second class was sold out. We didn’t get into the city of Como until pretty late, and it was another hour bus ride (with a CRAAAAZY bus driver) to Menaggio, where our hostel was. The hostel was pretty nice, as far as hostels go, lakeside, so it’s hard to complain about that. We went out for dinner and gelato once we dropped our stuff off (around 9:45) and apparently everything in Menaggio closes at like 9 because it was impossible to find a place to eat (Marcello says everything closes early because everyone at the lake is really rich. I’m not really sure this is a reason.) but we figured something out and then got gelato and walked along the lake for awhile. Menaggio is really beautiful, a tiny little lakeside town, and walking along the lake we kept seeing lights reeeeally high up in the sky…well, these were little houses, lit up, waaay up on the mountainsides but it was so dark we couldn’t see the mountains. It was really beautiful, like the house were just hovering in the darkness. The first night at the hostel was rather uneventful, if you don’t count the crazy old British ladies who shared our room and came in at like 1AM DRUNK (they were at LEAST 50 years old) and one of them barfed in the bathroom for awhile and another snored really loudly. Anyway. We had “breakfast” at the hostel in the morning (umm bread and cappuccino) and then set out to find a beach and relax. We went to the tourist office, and she pointed us to this realllly sketchy rocky beach which just disappointed us, so we went to what was apparently a “really incredibly beautiful” beach in the next town (on the bus again) which was also rather disappointing, BUT at this beach there were random beach chairs, so we camped out on the beach for several hours, reading and napping. The scene was really lovely. We got lunch (pizza for the 3rd meal in a row) and went back to the beach for awhile. While we were waiting for the bus again, these carabinieri (policemen) showed up and apparently were on a manhunt, Italian style. What I mean by Italian style is that they were all wandering around aimlessly with cigarettes in their hands. Occasionally they would break into a jog, or someone would come cruising by on a motorino. It was really hard not to laugh. They’d keep talking on their cell phones, smoking, and like checking under bridges and behind trees. They asked us if we’d seen the guys they were looking for but we hadn’t. They even had a cop undercover!!! Cause this random dude in a visor showed up and was conferring with them pretty seriously. Anyway. Thrills and chills. We showered back at the hostel, then took a ferry across the lake to Varenna, very beautiful, cobblestone streets. On the ferry ride I was serenaded by a ferry worker, who sang to me in Italian about red hair and told a really dumb joke (“So what do the cars do in the street when they see you? THEY STOP!!!! HA! Get it? Red!”) but he was cute…and then! In Varenna! I got a phone call from my wonderful cousin NATALIE!!!! How fortunate can a girl get! It was so great to get to talk to her…clearly I miss my IN minutes. We went back to Menaggio on the ferry and got some dinner (very good) and some gelato (well, I got hot chocolate, it was kinda chilly). That night, one old British lady was wearing a very slinky nightgown that I found a bit inappropriate in mixed company =). The next morning, we had “breakfast” again and took off for the train station. Kat wasn’t feeling well, so she headed straight back to Firenze, but Piya and I went to Milano for a few hours. We hopped on the subway as soon as we got there and went straight to the Duomo. The duomo in Milano is one of my favorite sites in Italy. The façade was still covered, as it was 2 years ago when I was there (can the Italians PLEASE get it together?) but it didn’t even matter…we went up to the roof to check out all the statues and buttresses and whatnot. It is really breathtaking, and Piya commented that it was amazing that it’s not considered one of the 7 wonders of the world, it’s that amazing (she compared it to the Taj Mahal). I can never really get enough of that duomo. We got lunch quickly (at Burger King. I know, I know.) and then subwayed (is that a verb?) back to the train station. Back to Firenze! It was kinda nice and refreshing to be back in my little room in Antella. I appreciate my personal time so I enjoyed unpacking and just being alone for awhile. Dinner was, of course, amazing, as usual, then it was back to the grind on Monday….

Pictures!