L.J. and I started the day taking a one-way ferry to Como to pick up our rental car that we would keep from today (Tuesday) until Thursday. Today’s ferry was much smaller than yesterday’s double-decker. We had some light rain but it didn’t linger. Always with the transit mindset, L.J. found the ferry maintenance facility!

We arrived in Como (hey we were just here last night!) and started our walk towards Avis. We stopped for a quick croissant and L.J. immediately found a kindred spirit with one of the employees.

Then we continued the walk (which was going to be about fifteen minutes). As we walked by this beautiful church, the bells were ringing.

Cactus, beautiful flowers, a street market of fresh fruits and vegetables and a pretty upscale Carhartt store! In the midst of our walk, we did stop at a Pharmacy as I had a bit of a toe issue. I cracked my toenail a few months ago and it finally got up to closer to the top of my nail bed (big toe) and now my walking was causing some friction on it and creating a bit of pain. We stopped in to see what they might have besides just taping my toenail and found some toe caps, like a little sleeve protector. We’ll see if that might help!

Continuing on our walk and found a pay phone while waiting to cross the street and of course, L.J. being always transit minded, liked this extra piece added into the street lights. We also found a B&B Hotel which we assumed was an investment property of Barry & Brenda’s.

Yeah! Avis was in sight! The original car we reserved had a super small back seat and wasn’t going to really work for the four of us so we asked about other options and we decided on this Jeep Renegade. It was a manual (straight) drive… in Italy… with some of the craziest and narrowest streets possible. Sounds fun, right?

So, we mapped back to Moltrasio, and were on our way back to meet Barry and Brenda and drive to Bellagio. Traffic was super busy in Como, as well as the road we needed to take back to the hotel, there are roundabouts where cars are at a complete standstill, or barely moving. Do you remember driving a straight and how much you loved starting and stopping? It’s been… a few years (more than 20!) since LJ had driven a straight. So we had traveled a bit and I thought I could smell something, I rolled down my window and that something was us. Fortunately L.J. realized then that he was starting in 3rd gear instead of 1st. 1st showed as both 1 and R for reverse. After that correction… things were looking up!

Back at the hotel, we decided to eat lunch at the casual lunch place owned by the hotel. I had a caprese salad and L.J., Brenda and Barry all had sandwiches. They were pretty cheap at only $5 Euro and Barry tried to ask their size, he decided to get two just in case. It’s hard to discern in the photo, but it was a sandwich with oversized bread, ham and cheese, it was quite large. One was enough and he took the second back to the room since we had a fridge.

Unsure of the water and ferry conditions, we decided to drive to Bellagio, it would be back through Como and then up the other side of the lake if you remember your geography lessons. The trip through Como was still quite busy and then we went through several small towns, many, many narrow roads and was an interesting 40 km trip. We were able to get behind a delivery truck for quite a while which actually helped as a blocker on the narrow roads, other cars would somewhat yield to us. We were glad to make it safely to Bellagio. We found a great parking space and walked into town.

We had worked hard on that trip so we decided probably some gelato was in order to get us kicked off right.

We decided to split up and look around for a bit, planning to meet back up with Barry and Brenda and find a dinner spot. We found some cool Harry Potter items in one store to show to our family and friends who are fans.

We also found a local store for those that lived in the area or were staying longer than those of us doing a day visit.

There were shops and restaurants all along the main street and then there were steep sidewalks up all along going up to another street parallel to the main street. Those also were lined with cute shops and places to eat.

On the upper street, we found a beautiful old church.

Some more sights from our walk around Bellagio. Most of these are all from the main lower street level, the flowers are just so beautiful.

We met Barry and Brenda and looked at a couple of food options, one beside the lake and another one up one of the stairways. We opted for the one on the stairs, La Lanterna. Since it is located on a hill, the restaurant spans three levels. We entered on the top level and were seated on the lowest level. The placemats were artist paint palettes and the menu was artistic and expansive.

Another wonderful meal! A side salad, the Bruschette Pomodoroa with Mozzarella and Pesto (we ordered two), Barry had the pappardelle with meat sauce and parmesan cheese, Brenda had the Pappardelle with Parmesan Cream Sauce, I had the pappardelle with tomato cream and porcini mushrooms, L.J. had the tagliatelle with meat sauce and then liked Brenda’s so much that he had one of those too!

We had a wonderful server and we asked her to please give our compliments to the chef, something we had not done on the trip before. She said he was actually her boyfriend and once she told him, he came out to meet us and then we enjoyed their amazing Homemade Chocolate and Almond Cake (which to us was a ooey-gooey brownie) that was amazing!

Even the bill was beautifully presented in these wooden boxes!

It had started to rain so enjoyed some final views of Bellagio and decided we would take the car ferry across the lake to Cadenabbia and then drive down the west side of the lake. It was a much wider road, lots of tunnels and even had lane markings most of the way!

The parking at the hotel was on the other side of the casual cafe in an underground garage. Brenda and I got out to open the garage door and then let the guys park and walk back up the hill to the main level. Tomorrow will be an early morning departure in the red Jeep!

L.J.’s steps for today