Romancing Italy 2 - ReLaxing Lago Di Como

On our second day, we met C early in the morning to drop off our bags at her house before heading off to Lake Como (Lago Di Como). This lake is 50 km north of Milan and known for its stunning view and fairytale lakeside villages. How could we miss this? :) We took a 45 mins train ride from Milan Stazione Centrale to Como San Giovanni Station, walked to the ferry terminal (around 20 mins) before boarding a fast service boat to Bellagio.

Enchanting welcome to Lake Como

The moment we arrived at Bellagio, I thought the entire place appeared right out from a story book! Low, brightly coloured buildings coupled with generous flowers at the balconies, small twirling stairways, eateries by the lake... utterly perfect combination.

Only one word to describe.. pretty...

See the small stairway?

As it was a small town, we tooked our time to explore around. We saw many interesting shops around and I was tempted to buy souveniors all the time! Luckily, M was around to curb my shopping appetite. My eating appetite was beyond his control though. I succumbed to a serving of fruita fresca (fresh strawberries) from one of the shops. Perhaps it was the hot weather but they tasted rather yummy to me.

See the rows of shophouses on both sides?

Nice glassware but unaffordable for me :(

After much walking around, we were both hungry and decided to have lunch at one of Frommers' recommended places, Silvio. The guide says this family-run restaurant, located at one end of the town, was often frequented by the locals and serves great food at reasonable prices. Sounds good right? What we didn't know is that our walk there would take 30 minutes. Under the hot afternoon sun, I was grouchy and grumpy, openly blaming M (though I agreed to go there in the first place).

When we reached there, the place was really crowded. We managed to get a seat in the corner and ordered our food. I must say this place was a little over-rated as our food turned out only average. But the restaurant has a good view though. :)

Located right at the far corner of Bellagio...

The scenic view you can enjoy from Silvio

By the time we got back to the centre of the town from Silvio, we had just missed the 3pm boat ride back to Como. Well, we decided to do something relaxing for a change i.e. just sitting by the lake and enjoying the great view.

See what I mean here?

At 4pm, we boarded the fast boat back to Como and from there, made our way back to Milan, where we were meeting C for dinner. She brought us to a very delicious seafood spaghetti place where we indulged in a huge serving of yummy, appetizing seafood spaghetti, average salad and delicious but slight salty mussels + clams soup. I wanted to take a picture of the restaurant but somehow, it slipped my mind as I was chatting with C. In this case, C, not food, prevails. We haven't seen each other for a long while...

After dinner, we headed back to C's apartment where she kindly put us up for the night. We continued our endless chat but it wasn't long before I started feeling dozy, suffering from the effect of jet lag. The romantic city Venice beckoned the next day but for that night, I was contented catching up on my beauty sleep in the comfort of C's home. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz....