Boating to Bellagio

Our last day on Lake Como was the highlight of our trip. After a day of rain, the sun shown brightly with no haze. We took the ferry to Bellagio (about a 45 minute journey), which is considered to be the jewel of Lake Como.

The view from the very front of the ferry

My future house (any one will do)

My future life (I can dream, anyway)

That's the town of Bellagio to the right

That's the view from Bellagio

Grayson fed all of his lunch to the ducks - they were very happy ducks

Back in Argegno . . .

Going back to Belgium is gonna be TOUGH!

Milan, Italy

One day we drove to Milan to explore the city. It was gray and raining as we left the Lake, but as you can see, the skies cleared and it quickly became a gorgeous Italian day.

Milan's Duomo is the third largest cathedral in the world (only St. Peter's in Rome and the cathedral of Seville are larger)

We waited in a VERY long line in order to take an elevator to the roof of the Duomo (those are stickers we used to amuse Grayson, at one point all three of us had them all over our faces)

The view from the top was worth it - above is a photo looking down at the Piazza del Duomo

Looking out at Milan

We weren't allowed to use our stroller on the roof of the Duomo, which made for an interesting time as we held onto Grayson for dear life

Up on the roof we were in the midst of flying buttresses, gargoyles, and statues

Taking a break on the roof

Looking down at the entrance to the Galleria

Once we were down from the roof, we strolled through the Galleria

The Galleria's glass ceiling was splended

Even the tile floors were beautiful

We weren't able to see Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, which is painted on the wall of a convent in Milan (there was a two week wait for tickets!), but we did get to see a statue of the artist

And Grayson found - what else - a fountain

Milan is the mecca of fashion, so we stopped into a couple of flagship stores. Our last stop was Prada - Grayson was strapped safely in his stroller, but he still managed to grab a 300 euro pair of sunglasses from a bottom shelf (he wanted to try them on, of course). You have never seen two parents move more quickly. Tony held his arm as I carefully peeled each of his fingers from the sunglasses. They were fine - thank goodness (the fingers and the sunglasses).

Since this wasn't a particularly fun trip for Grayson, we rewarded - ok, bribed - him with a lollipop

And the biggest banana split south of the Italian border

And did I mention that in a country with some of the best food in the world we lunched at - where else - McDonald's. Thus is life in Europe with a 2-year-old :)

San Fedele Intelvi

After our very long day, we wanted to take it easy and take Grayson to a playground so he could expend some of his 2-year-old energy. So we drove to the little town of San Fedele Intelvi, about 15 minutes away in the mountains. They had a great playground that Grayson loved and a charming church. And despite the threatening skies it never rained.

Grayson made another friend at the park

Right across the from the playground was this beautiful Italian villa - I think I'd like to live there someday


And this was the view of the valley that was shared by both the villa and the playground

The Chiesa di San Antonio, in the heart of town

This cross outside the church says "God Loves You"

After our trip to San Fedele Intelvi, we drove back to Argegno for a great Italian lunch at Ristorante Barchetta

Then Grayson played in the fountain on the Piazza Roma in Argegno