Saturday, September 10, 2011

Italy - Lake Como & Milan


Lake Como
Our first destination in Italy was Lake Como. We stayed in beautiful Lake Como (where George Clooney also owns a villa) for 2 nights (August 18 & 19). The hotel we were in was located in Brunate, which required us to take the funicolare up from the base of Lake Como to the top of the mountain where we were left with amazing views of the lake and the city.

 The funicolare

 The view of Lake Como from our hotel

 Taking a short hike from our hotel down to the funicolare station
 
We had a very relaxing time in Como sitting by the lake, taking in a short hike, and exploring the small city. 






Milan
Our next stop in Italy was Milan.  Before we even got to Milan, we knew that there wasn’t a whole lot that we wanted to see, but we just wanted to visit the city to see what it was about – the fashion capital of the world.

We only spent a few hours touring around the city and within that time, we saw everything we wanted to see. We then headed back to the hotel.  Our hotel was gorgeous and air-conditioned which provided relief from the sweltering heat (37C plus humidity – uck).  We technically spent more of our time in Milan on the internet - booking accommodations, flights and doing other trip planning, as Matt’s and my travel time together ends after Venice, once our rail pass ends.  We both have different itineraries to continue with and I will only be travelling until December, whereas Matt is going to continue until next April/May!  

Here are some of our photos from Milan:

 Duomo di Milano - Italy's largest cathedral and the only Gothic cathedral in Italy.

 Watching a tourist get ripped off by a street person pulling the "friendship bracelet" trick.

 Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II - Milan's historic shopping arcade. Beautiful architecture & paintings. The gallery is completely covered by glass and contains fancy stores such as Louis Vuitton, Prada and even BMW.

 Castello Sforzesco - Medieval castle in Parco Sempione...and one of the ugliest castles I have ever seen.


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