We said goodbye to Villa Cafaggiolo today to make our journey to Lake Como. Of course, the day had to start with saying goodbye to our friendly horses and ponies. Paola said they would greatly enjoy our not-so-soft bread and we had snagged a few apples for them Friday as well at the Coop so we fed them the remainder of those also.

Then we packed ourselves into the rental, with all the luggage… and off we went to return the rental car. When we got to the rental car return, we called for a large taxi. A not very large taxi arrived and a bit of chaos ensued. We had no space. When I say no space, we were literally struggling to find ways to sit that didn’t give us pain or hurt each other. Barry had a full suitcase lodged against his chest and was having some trouble breathing (spoiler: he lived). We all were laughing so hard we were crying, it was quite the event. I’m not quite sure what was going through the taxi driver’s mind but I’m guessing it had something to do with “crazy Americans”.

We made it back to the train station in Florence and found our train to Como. Our first train was from Florence to Milan, $61.90 Euro pp. This was another high speed train and this time we had a private compartment for the four of us. We felt like quite the VIP’s, though it was a little small. L.J. found some chicken wraps for us at McDonald’s to eat on the train – our first “American” fast food on the trip.

The highest speed we saw on the trip was 299 km/h which equals 186 mph. We were flying! Of course, Barry, we now call him The Mayor, ran into someone he knew on the train from Florence to Milan and this trend would continue everywhere we went until Friday.

So Como is a city in Italy, located on Lake Como, located in the Province of Como. We stayed in Moltrasio, which is a small village, also located on Lake Como, about 6 kilometers north of Como. Please see below for a quick geography lesson.

We changed trains in Milan and got on a regional train (no assigned seats and only $5 Euro pp). We had plenty of room in our car to spread out which was very nice because it was extremely hot on the train. When we arrived in Como, I had been able to pre-arrange a car service (yeah! an actual large vehicle!) that picked us up at the train station to take us to our hotel. Her name was Paola as well.

We arrived at the Hotel Posta, a small family run hotel, which conveniently was located right next to the hotel where Barry’s conference was being held! It had a restaurant inside as well as a casual lunch place next door. This was actually our first individual hotel rooms of the trip. We were in the apartment in Venice and then the house in Tuscany.

Our rooms had small balconies where we could see the lake and the ferry was right across the street, which was super convenient!

The elevator at the hotel was like I remembered when Mom and I went to Paris, very tiny. When navigating with suitcases, we usually just went one at a time and otherwise, two of us could fit. The stairs were fortunately right at the elevator and easily accessible.

There was also another restaurant next door that had sandwiches, coffee and GELATO! We decided to take a break and indulge since we hadn’t had any gelato all day!

We decided to just stay at the hotel for dinner, they suggested reservations and we weren’t sure why after arriving and being only the second table but it did fill up more later on as Europeans do tend to eat later than we do.

Our food was delicious and we tried some new things. If you’re not into the food pics, you may want to scroll to the end.

Appetizers included creamed peas with a low temperature egg, the house special, home made bresaola (dried meat) and a mixed local goat cheese selection.

Second Course, I had the Paccheri with cream of cherry tomatoes and burrata (YUM! Possibly my favorite pasta of the trip), L.J. had one of the specials, tagliatelle with a meat ragu and a salad (Barry and Brenda skipped the pasta course – what?)

Third Course, Barry had the perch filets, Brenda and I each had filet, L.J. had the Milanese veal cheeks with polenta, also pictured were Brenda’s vegetables which unfortunately did not arrive with her filet.

Dessert was… surprise! Gelato and L.J. had tiramisu.

We were excited to begin our third “leg” of the trip and what we would find for our adventures this week in and around Lake Como… including a trip to another country!