Autobahnanza

Bellagio means Beautiful, I think

Having a new car is wonderful, but the reality of driving it (as Chris has already alluded to) in Italy is for the birds. So, after almost becoming BMW pancake and narrowly avoiding leaving "sparkling graphite" paint on the mountains of Italy, the Hotel Aurora was a welcome sight. We were ready to park that car for a while. (Also, if I waste one more minute of our vacation in an Italian traffic jam, I'm renting a Vespa.)



Chris and I have been overwhelmed by the hospitality of the Italians. Just when we think language might be an insurmountable barrier, and English-speaking angel shows up to save us. So it was at the hotel Aurora. The woman who checked us in spoke not a lick of English, so we thought we were finally going to be on our own. Then came Margherita, who greeted us with, "Are you Collins?" She showed us around the hotel, gave us maps, introduced us to the area, told us what to do with our time, and generally made us feel completely comfortable. We are well blessed and provided for.

Our room is a dream. I thought we had great windows in Venice. This window is like a window to paradise. It overlooks the lakes and mountains - a view like nothing you have seen before. We are staying on Lake Como in the north of Italy - a mountain lake dropped in the middle of majestic mountains. The north end of the lake is bordered by Switzerland and the Alps. The Italian mountains are called the Dolomites, I think. I want to give credit here to our good friend, Julia, who told us about this place. Julia, we'll take vacation advice from you any day.



The hotel happens to be run by international champion water skiers. I think they run a hotel to support their water skiing habit. Anyway, that helps explain why the hotel has a beachfront terrace for lounging (and launching boats), free canoeing, kayaking, water trampoline, etc. What's funny is that a gaggle of teenagers hang out on the dock all day and take shifts wake boarding. I'm pretty sure that's what they do all summer - hang out and water ski. What a life! I'm also pretty sure the owner of this place doesn't mind spending his summer pulling these teenagers around behind his boat. He may enjoy it more than them.

We are staying in a small town called Lezzeno. Bellagio is nearby, a charming waterfront town a bit bigger than Lezzeno. I don’t know exactly how to capture how beautiful it is here. We thought Venice was beautiful, and it was in an ancient sort of way. This place is beautiful in a way that makes you thankful you were able to disturb it for just a little while, like you don’t belong here and should be thankful for every minute you can live in its serenity.





Today we went to Milan, a totally different experience… but that is for another blog!

posted by natalie @ 1:38 PM