Life as we know it...: Bellagio & Menaggio!

We woke up this morning and had breakfast out on the terrace at our B & B. It both Switzerland and here in Italy, they serve some of the things that we may have in the U.S. for a "continental style breakfast" like fruit, yogurt and granola. Some things that we may not see at home include different types of cured meats, and cheeses, and also dinner type rolls. As long as they have some coffee, I'm ok!

After breakfast we took our walk down to the lake and headed to the next town, which is only about a mile away, called Lenno. We stopped to get some lunch items from the supermarket along the way. In Lenno we took one of the many ferries that takes you to the different towns in the central part of the lake. The ride on the ferry was very enjoyable, as the temperature was in the mid 80's and the breeze off of the water was very nice! Our boat made a few stops at neighboring towns before heading across the lake to the town of Bellagio.

In Bellagio, we walked through the very narrow streets and alleyways lined with shops, gelaterias, pizzerias, and other places of business. After a while we made our way to the lake front where we found a park bench to enjoy our lunch! At our grocery stop we had picked up some pasta salad, goat cheese, crackers and prosciutto! It was so good! The cheese especially! After our lunch we stopped by one of the may gelaterias for some gelato! I had pistachio and limone, and J had a mixed fruit. The pistachio was the best!

After looking in a few more shops, we went back to the dock to wait for the ferry, which took us back to the town of Lenno. We had about a half an hour walk from where the boat dropped off, to our bed and breakfast. The last 10 minutes up that steep road had us sweaty and ready to go for a swim. We took a quick dip in the pool, and laid out in the lounge chairs for an hour or so.

After laying out we showered and just relaxed in our room for a couple hours before getting ready for dinner. We decided to drive around the lake towards the town of Menaggio to look for a Pizzeria to have dinner at. We got stopped by a cop who we thought was giving us a ticket, and whom we couldn't understand, but it ended up that he was pulling everyone over, and I guess checking tags or something.

We made it to Menaggio and saw a pizzeria before parking the car. We walked along the lake back to a plaza area that had hotels and restaurants on all sides, and we found the restaurant we had seen earlier. Almost every restaurant has an outdoor patio and most people dine outside, but you don't wait to be sat. You just find a table, and eventually someone sees that you are there and brings you a menu. We sat down, and were given menus, but saw that they didn't take a credit card.

The problem is that we had cash in Swiss Francs, but didn't have any Euros. We had planned to exchange some of our Swiss Francs for Euros when we arrived, but we got here yesterday and because it was Saturday (which we failed to realize), none of the banks were open. So basically we have had to use the credit card for everything here. So we left that restaurant and found another, were given menus, and then asked about using credit, and were told no. Finally we found a restaurant that did accept credit, but they weren't open for another half an hour. It is so funny, most restaurants don't serve dinner until between 6 and 7.

We waited by the lake and went back to the restaurant at 7. It was very fancy, and the wait staff was very elegant and formal. I had a salad and spaghetti, and J had tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella (AMAZING) and ravioli in a veal a jus. When the waitress came to take our plates she asked if we wanted dessert and Jared shook his head because he thought she said "Are you all set?" and so we said what the heck, and ordered dessert and a cappuccino. The dessert was beautiful. I ordered cake and the ice cream of the day and Jared ordered a warm apple tart with caramel sauce. It was so fancy! Both desserts came with whipped cream, a small dish of delicious gelato, fresh fruit, chocolate sauce, an Italian cookie and a dish of raspberry sauce. I waddled out of the restaurant, I was sooo full!

After dinner we headed back to where we are staying in Ossucio. Today was our last fun day on our trip. Tomorrow we have about a 4 hour drive back to Zurich, where we will stay for the night before flying out EARLY on Tuesday morning. We have had a great time, but are anxious to see Caden!

I will probably blog a final blog when we get back and include a link to all 700+ pictures, which I intend to put on snapfish or flickr so that those who want to, can see them all. Here are some of our pictures from today: