La Dolce Far Niente

La Dolce Far Niente is Italian meaning "the sweetness of doing nothing". Which is mostly what we did in Lake Como. We did take some trips to the neighboring towns in the region, but we really just enjoyed relaxing in the warm air, drinking some wine, and eating delicious food.

We went to visit Villa Balbianello, which is a *gorgeous* villa in the town of Lenno. It has been used in many movies, and when Danny & I got there we realized it was in the James Bond movie, Casino Royale. It has also been in Star Wars II & Ocean's 12. It was absolutely breathtaking.






This one is not my photo, but it is the villa in its entirety:


There were tents being dismantled as we were there, from a wedding the night before. It is a popular wedding destination venue. The people who had been wed there the night before were Americans. You too can rent the villa for an event for the low cost of 100,000 Euros! And that is just the rental fee, not including catering, drinks, flowers, lodging at a neighboring town, etc.


Ciao Italy! We'll see you again in a few weeks!

Lake Como, Part 2

Danny & I love Italy. When we made a list of our planned holiday destinations for this year, different places in Italy came up on the list 4 times. We love the food, the landscape, the culture, everything.
It is such a wonderful place to vacation with children, as they are so welcoming towards little ones and really delight in them. I love to people watch, as the Italians take a lot of pride in their appearance and even casual outfits are very chic & pulled together. I often turn on the tv and leave it on, just because the language is so pleasing to my ear. I really haven't a clue what they are talking about, I just enjoy hearing it so. Italian culture centers around food, family & friends. What more could there be to life? (answer: not much, unless you ask Danny, then he would include "Aggie Football")
You've probably already realized that the title of our blog, "La Dolce Vita" is an Italian phrase meaning "the sweet life", which incorporates & focuses on those three (or four) things.


The sole thing I don't love about Italy? The inability to get a cup of coffee to-go.
Everyone knows that Italians take their coffee very seriously, it is almost an art form. There are different coffee drinks for different times of day & different moods. This is all well & good, but sometimes I just want a cup of joe to sip on in the mornings while wandering around. The older I get and the more kids I have, the more dependent I have become on caffeine in the mornings. Small children are not always conducive to sitting in a cafe and enjoying a leisurely drink. But you can not go to a cafe & order coffee to go. Last time we were in Rome, I was so desperate for my morning caffeine fix I went into a McDonald's and tried to order a coffee. I was met with a disdainful look and told "Non serviamo il caffè". No self-respecting Italian would ever drink coffee from McDonald's. Or Starbucks, for that matter. There are none of those either.


So Kate's naughty behaviour on the first day of our trip lost her gelato privileges. I am a mean mom, and still got some and then proceeded to eat it front of her.

Gee, can you tell that my legs have not seen the light of day in almost 2 years?

Lake Como is Italy's deepest lake, which of course means it is quite cold. It doesn't appear so in our pictures, but the water is turquoise blue. There were not many lidos, but rather steps leading down into the lake if you wanted to take a dip in the lake.



It was hot while we were there, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was the first time since we moved to London that I have broken a non-gym induced sweat, and I loved every minute of the hot air. Kate liked it too, and wanted to go splash in the water.
I took her socks and shoes off, and then she slowly proceeded to strip everything else off too. Danny was mortified, but I figured it is the European way and let her have her fun.


We took a boat trip down to the town of Como, which was much busier and metropolitan than the town we stayed in, Bellagio. On the way, we passed George Clooney's house, and everyone got very excited and whipped out their cameras.

Lake Como, Part 1

I'm going to break this up into several bits. Partly because Lake Como is such a magnificent locale that it deserves lots of photos and narrative, but also partly because I can't find the time to sit at the computer long enough to do it all in one go.

Lake Como is not an easy destination to reach. We had to take a car, a plane, a bus, a train, and a boat. And then walk up the side of a town carved into a mountain with a suitcase, a stroller and a very, very tired 4 year old. This all added up to quite a long day. But it was all worth it because I can honestly say that it is the most beautiful place I have ever laid eyes upon.



Our flight left at 7:30am, which meant we had to leave our house at 4:30. This is prior to public transportation running, so we had to take a car service to the airport. This is also awesome, because the car service screwed up somehow and came to our house the morning before. At 4:30. Waking up the whole house. Awesome!

I should I have known that the trip was going to get off to an auspicious start when I was already wide awake at 2 am when Kate came bounding up the stairs to our bedroom telling us "I was all alone in my bedroom". We tried coaxing her back to sleep for some time, and she finally fell back asleep somewhere around 3:30. She re-awoke in a great, chipper mood and was very pleasant for the car ride and check-in at the airport. Riding in a car is a big novelty around here, since I can count the number of times in the last year we have done so on one hand.

We have always been proud of what a great little traveler Kate has been. She doesn't even need the bribe of DVDs or those little game consoles to keep her entertained on flights. She is usually content to read, color or just ask 4,589,321 questions about inane things. Apparently, the Gods of the Travel Universe wanted to shake things up a bit for us. There were lots of tears, kicking the seat back in front of us. & even a few ear-piercing shrieks on board our British Airways flight. Michael, who is usually Drama #1, was easy-peasy, and just looked on with surprise. It was horrid and we were humiliated.

The day culminated in Kate not getting any Gelato, and a stressful early dinner/lunch that looked something like this:



Not amused.


Everybody look at me 'cuz I'm standing on a boat! Even Kate knows this is Danny's favorite song. Every time we got onto a boat she asked him to sing it.