Road trip part 4:Lake Como

We stayed at the lovely hotel Bellavista right on the lake and our view was spectacular.

It was a corner room so that there werewindows on 2 sides and the sun would come in all day through one of them and the other opened straight on to the lake.

These mountains are said to have inspired De Vinci and the colors and rock faces just might have.

The first day we went into the countryside, up the mountains to a hill top where we had a picnic after our lovely drive.

That night for dinner we had the most fantastic experience. The restaurant, Osteria Del Viaggiatore, was highly recommended but when we arrived no one spoke any English. We were fine with doing our best, so we asked to be seated. The wine came and the hostess asked us to please wait- she had clearly been practicing this phrase. After 10 minutes, we heard the big, wooden front door, footsteps on the stone stairs and there appeared a waitress, flipping her apron over her head, speaking perfect English, ready to explain the menu to us and take care of us for the evening. They had called her in on her night off! When Sterling tried to ask for a plate of spaghetti, she refused and promised him that she would bring him something good tonight and that he would like it. She did and he did. She was wonderful!

The next day, we saw the Orrido, “the horrible”, it is a gigantic waterfall

on our way to Varenna, a lovely little town with romantic walkways right on the lake.

But the 2 most memorable were George Clooney's Villa Oleandra in Laglio – he wasn’t home. It is a beautiful villa, barely visible from the road and we did not even get out of the car because everyone has a right to privacy, but just to drive by was fun.

The other was Villa Balbianello, where the wedding scene in Star Wars was shot. It was spectacularly beautiful and the landscaping was incredible. The sun and season brought out the colors. It was a nice hike to get there – no cars allowed.

One our way back to Switzerland, we saw a Ferrari were able to get behind it as the traffic was moving slowly. We were snapping pictures out the window. So when the Ferrari pulled into a petrol station, we did too. (We really did need to get fuel.) The driver was a very nice man who saw Sterling admiring his car and he let him sit in it! As you can see, Sterling enjoyed this very much.