Welcome to Shields Notes, where we will take you through our 5 month journey!
marykate@shieldsnotes.com patrick@shieldsnotes.com
Welcome to Shields Notes, where we will take you through our 5 month journey!
marykate@shieldsnotes.com patrick@shieldsnotes.com
When visiting Milan, we had heard a trip to Lake Como is a must. It is a super easy 45 minute train ride to Juco (and George Clooney’s) favorite place in the world.
The Northern Lake District of Italy is made up of primarily three big lakes—Lake Como, Lake Maggiore, Lake Garda. It is a popular summer vacation spot for Italians & Swiss and one of the deepest lakes in Europe, over 1,300 feet deep, (and one of the most beautiful!). What's not to love about a bright blue, glacial lake that have the Alps as a backdrop?!
Lake Como has been used as a retreat for aristocrats since the Roman times. Huge, beautiful villas still line the lake. You would recognize one of the most famous ones, Villa del Balbianello, in movies like Casino Royale and Star Wars. Now, Lake Como is known to be a celebrity hot spot (and sometimes gets a bad rap for being over-the-top). Especially in off-season, we thought Lake Como could not have been more beautiful, serene, or idyllic.
We kept saying how Lake Como is the perfect honeymoon spot. March is when the lake residents start to re-open for the summer season, so we just so happened to be there on the first weekend that hotels and stores were actually open! Because of our timing, we got a lucky with great deal at a beautiful hotel in Tremezzo.
We spent our first few hours in Lake Como hiking to the San Martino Church, a small church perched on the side of a mountain. We needed a workout and heard the views were amazing!
Right across from Tremezzo is the "pearl of the lake," the village of Bellagio. (We did not make that up...everyone calls it "the pearl"). It was really easy to take the water taxi to the other side for lunch and explore this cute little town. We can only imagine what it is like in the peak of the summer!
Touring Lake Como by boat is by far the best way to see the grand villas and picturesque villages that line the shores. We did a sunset cruise in our hotel's wooden boat and could not stop smiling - such a cool experience. Our driver took us by George Clooney's house and we saw a light on (which was good enough for us!!)
After 2 nights in Tremezzo, we moved to an Airbnb on the other side of the lake for a night in Torno.
We spent Palm Sunday at the cutest church with an incredible choir. They used olive trees leaves instead of palm leaves and had a procession around the little town with the olive leaves before mass.
We loved our time in Lake Como and hope to be back to explore the other villages, like Varenna! Next time, we will come a little later for the warm weather (we heard end of April/early May or September is the best time to go!)
