A Day on Lake Como

Because we had spent a day and a half in Milan, we figured day three should be the day we venture out of the city. We had heard rave reviews of Lake Como and knew that it was easily accessible by train, so on Saturday we set out for Lake Como, not to be confused with Cuomo, the governor of New York. :) We took the metro to the central station, where the bigger trains arrive and depart from, and an hour later, we had arrived in Varena, a little town on Lake Como.

I don't know why I'm still surprised at how beautiful things are in Italy because almost every day, I am shocked at how stunning something is. This day, it was Lake Como. The snowy mountains that come to the edge of the lake are daunting in size, but breathtaking in beauty. In the winter, their tips are snow covered and there is a fog surrounding them that adds to their attraction.

We asked this Italian lady to take our photograph

and before we could say "Grazi!" she was posing us

I'm pretty sure Mike was having flashbacks to our engagement photo session

I don't know if you can see it, but at the top of that hill is Mike's dream home.  A castle

 We found a church....

And the cutest little villa....

Guys, we haven't found a single Russo or Caligari (my grandmother's maiden name), but you better believe we've found some Hogan signs.  WHAT?!?!!?

The view leaving Bellagio 

The small, little towns on the lake are no different. The cobblestone roads and stairs leading through different side streets just added to the ambiance. We loved wandering the streets and taking in the views, especially since the towns were pretty deserted. It was a chilly day and we were happy to cling tight to each other for warmth while walking through the the little town of Varena.

We knew that going to Lake Como at the end of January would be considered off-season, but we didn't realize quite how off-season it would be. When we arrived at 10:30, literally every restaurant and coffee shop was closed. Most of them had signs on the doors saying that they would be closed from January to March for the off-season. We decided to take the ferry to the town of the Bellagio (the famous hotel/casino's namesake!) across the lake to see if anything was open there.

Luckily, there were a few restaurants and cafes open there, although the majority followed the suit of Varena and were closed for the off-season. We found a place to eat lunch and were happy to get out of the cold for a little while. It's funny because, since the towns were so deserted, you ended up seeing the same people everywhere. We saw the couple at the table next to us at lunch almost everywhere we went, as well as two girls and their father that came over on the ferry with us,

After lunch, we found a cafe for coffee and then walked around a bit in hopes of finding a wine tasting. We had no such luck and settled on sitting on one of the benches outside and doing some reading until the ferry came to take us back to the train station. We thought that the train came every hour, but apparently it takes a break during the 3 o'clock hour, which is when we wanted to leave, so we ended up spending another hour reading at the train station.

By the time we made it back to Milan, it was almost six and time for dinner. We found a great area, Brera, with tons of restaurants serving apertivos. The first restaurant we went to had great wine and brought us a full plate of olives, little finger sandwhiches and potato chips (almost every restaurant we go to brings us potato chips! Apparently the Italians love them!). While we knew we wanted to go elsewhere for dinner, it was a great stop for apertivos. After we left, we found that most restaurants don't actually open until seven for dinner, so we walked around for a few minutes waiting for seven o'clock to hit. I guess when you fill up on apertivos, you don't need to eat dinner quite as early.

Since we had been eating pasta and pizza for three days straight, we figured it was time to change up our menu, so we found a sushi restaurant, Bento and grabbed a table. There isn't much diversity in restaurants in Izmir, so we're always excited when we head to international cities like Milan or Berlin and can eat sushi or Mexican, both of which we long for in Izmir. This restaurant didn't disappoint and our sushi was delicious.

We ended the night back at the apartment FaceTiming with some of our favorite Americans and were glad to have an early night in after a wonderful day.

Step count: 25, 249

Milan Day Two

Day two in Milan started out relatively early because we had a reservation to see the Last Supper. You have to make reservations because they only let in 30 people at a time through a guided tour. We thought we had made reservations for a tour in English, but our tour ended up being in Italian, which was kind of disappointing, especially since we had to pay extra for the English tour and the majority of the people on our tour were not Italian. It didn't matter too much, since we didn't really care about the tour, we just wanted to see the painting, but it would have been nice to understand what the tour guide was saying.

They did have a few signs to help you identify each person in the painting. Both Mike and I agreed that John looked like a girl. I think there is some story behind that, but I'll have to research. It's pretty incredible to think about all that the painting has gone through (a major WWII bombing of the church) and the fact that it's still there. I also just think it's pretty cool to see since it takes over a whole wall. Sometimes I think famous paintings (cough: the Mona Lisa ::cough) get so built up that, by the time you actually see them, it's kind of a disappointment. This was definitely not the case with the Last Supper. It's just as amazing as the hype surrounding it says.

The church that is home to the Last Supper

The painting opposite the Last Supper, which no one ever pays attention to.  Poor painting :(

The tour of the Last Supper only lasted about 30 minutes, if that, so we really had most of the day free. There is a castle in Milan that has a bunch of museums and a park behind it. We walked around the grounds of the castle and stopped in some of the museums before heading to lunch. The museums were pretty small, but the musical instrument museum was interesting. I'm not a music person, but seeing the old kinds of string instruments was pretty cool.

After lunch, we set out for some church sight seeing. There is almost a church on every block, so you could spend your entire life admiring the churches of Italy, but there were a few that had been recommended via Lonely Planet and they didn't disappoint. One of them had been around since the fifth century! Pretty cool!

I love the way the sun shone through the window here

Pretty creepy but kind of cool

It really never gets old

Once we had our fill of churches, we still had a few hours, so we went to the Pinateca di Brera, an art museum which had gotten great reviews. By this point, my feet were tired, so the thought of wandering around an art museum wasn't the most appealing, but I'm glad we did it. There were some beautiful pieces of art there and it was a pretty big museum, so there was lots to see. They give you a map with a few pieces mentioned to look out for, which was nice since there were over 35 rooms with art in them!

After the museum, we had to head back to our AirBnB and get ready because we were going to the opera that night!! Neither of know much about opera, but when in Italy, am I right? I'm so glad we did this because it was quite the experience. Even if you don't go to see an actual opera, you should find a way into the opera house, La Scalla, because it's a piece of art in itself. The box seats surround the walls of the theater and the excitement of the guests adds to the ambiance. We had seats on the floor towards the back, which ended up being great seats. I wasn't sure how the whole opera was going to go since we don't speak Italian, but they had little machines on the back of each seat that provided subtitles in either English or Italian. Even if you spoke Italian, I think you'd need subtitles because it can be hard to understand at times.

Rigalleto was great and despite our frustrations with the plot, it was a fun experience. The actors and actresses were great, the set was a piece of art in itself and the singing puts Mike's girl T. Swift to shame (don't tell him I said that!). I love getting dressed up and feeling fancy for a night every once and a while and this time was no different. I don't know if we'll be going to another opera any time soon, but it was a fun experience and definitely worthwhile when in Milano!

Step Count: 27,169

Ciao from Milano!

We spent most of January laying low in Izmir because we knew that February would be busy and exhausting. Sure enough, that's proved true, but it's been an incredible first few days. On Thursday, we woke up early and boarded a plane to Milan. We were both excited to get back to the land of pasta and interested to see the differences between the north and south of Italy.

We flew into the Milan airport and got there early afternoon. At this point, we know the flying routine well. The goal is to get off the plane as quickly as possible so you can be in the front of the customs line. Getting stuck in the back can add a lot of time to the whole process. This time we were first in line! Traveling with an American passport usually means a quick customs process with little to no questions. This time, though, was completely different. We were asked how many days we were staying, if we had a flight back and if we could show proof of our AirBnB reservations. Neither of us have ever experienced any sort of questioning, so this was a whole new experience for us. Luckily, Mike could access the AirBnB reservations and that seemed to suffice. Once we made it through, we grabbed our bags and headed towards the bus that would take us to the metro. As we were walking out of the airport, two police officers stopped us (only us) and asked us if we had any cigarettes or guns on us. They also wanted to know if we had any euros on us and when we told them the amount, they were pleased to know it wasn't more than 10,000 euros. I guess we looked suspicious with our backpacks and suitcase because I've never experienced any sort of customs experience like that!

After all of that, we were glad to get on the bus and head into the city. It's pretty easy to get from the airport into the city. There are tons of bus companies there waiting to take you. We had reserved our tickets ahead of time, which made it easy. The bus drops you off at the metro station and the metro is extremely easy to use. Our AirBnB was a block from the Duomo, which let. me. Tell. You. That is one incredible church. When we walked out of the metro station, we looked to the left and there it was in all of it's glory. It's massive in size and breathtaking in beauty.

oh hey Duomo!

We were a little early for our AirBnB, so we stopped at one of the cafes across the street from the Duomo and grabbed a glass of wine and apertivo. Two things. One, my only qualm with AirBnB is the initial meeting with the owner. When we are traveling in another country, we almost always don't have access to internet, unless we can find free wifi. This means you have to coordinate ahead of time with the owner to let them know what time you will be arriving. If you end up being late or early, there's really no way to let them know. We were about an hour early and would have liked to drop our stuff off, but really had no way to do so. End rant. It's really not that big of a deal. Two. The apertivo scene in Milan is fierce and I love it. It's like classy happy hour. You get all sorts of yummy bread, meat and cheese to accompany your wine and it's truly a wonderful thing. Add in the scene of the Duomo and I'm contemplating never leaving.

Anyways, after a glass of wine and lots of apertivos, it was time to meet our AirBnB host. We love AirBnB because you can usually find a nice apartment that is equal in price or cheaper than the hotels in the same area. This time was no different and we ended up finding this apartment for about a third of the price of the nearby hotels. The apartment was super small, but we really only needed it for the bed and the bathroom, so it worked. It was also in a great location because it was only a block from the Duomo, which has it's own metro stop. Overall, a great location and apartment.

We dropped our stuff of and went back out to do a little sight seeing. We took in more of the Duomo from the outside, but also went inside to see the inner beauty and it didn't disappoint.

We lit a candle for Memom and I could feel her smiling down. It made it that much more special to know my Italian grandmother was there with me.

I know I'm a little biased being Italian and Catholic, but the Duomo is beautiful. Absolutely stunning. Some might say the Tyra Banks of churches.

By this point, it was time for dinner. Mike and I usually try to go to restaurants that are recommended, either from travel books, blogs or TripAdvisor. This time, though, we just decided to wander freely and see what we could find. This meant wandering for a while. When you have a million options and they all look good, it's really hard to decide and you end up wandering for a while. We finally settled on a restaurant called Cafe Della Opera and it didn't disappoint. Mike got pasta and I got pizza and we were both extremely satisfied.

We couldn't end our first day in Italy without some gelato and, once again, let. me. Tell. You. This gelato was something incredible. I'm not a huge chocolate ice cream fan (I prefer my chocolate in the form of reese's or hershey's), but this combination of vanilla, chocolate, and peanut butter took ice cream to a whole new level.

It was definitely a successful first day in Italy, filled with wine, good food, and beautiful views.

Step Count: 21,339