We departed on the bus from the hotel at 9 AM. It took us approximately 1 hour to drive to our ferry stop at Lake Como. Highlight of the morning: getting yelled at by an Italian for being stupid Americans; we were on a pier taking pictures and weighed too much. We grabbed waters and coffees at an overpriced café right on the waterfront and then stood in line for the ferry.
What came next was several hours that I never expected to experience, traveling up the Western side of the lake, stopping at quaint vacation spots and drooling over villas tha could only be described as the Italian version of Newport. Our destination was the seaside town of Bellagio, where we ate lunch of white fish and pizza at Baba Yaga. The town is set on the side of a hill and lined by cobblestone streets. Shops beckoned but the gelato won out. The bakery owner gave me a postcard with a picture of his father on it. The store opened in 1919. Then most of the MBA class stood in line in a small, single owner shop that sold cheap scarves and amazing leather bags. We panicked at the time, flying to catch our boat, only to have our guide Andrea deadpan 'boat is gone.'
Das corraled us under the trees while we waited another 25 minutes for another ferry to take us across the water to catch our bus. The road was made up of 45 minutes of switchbacks and insane passes and the journey ended in Lugano, Switzerland. We only had an hour to visit but we are the only MBA class to make it to three countries in one trip! All of the stores were closed at 4:30 on a Sunday. Instead we admired dogs, the Mojito bar, francs, and watches. (BTW...you need a password to get into the restroom in Burger King).We climbed in the bus and most everyone slept the entire hour back.
For dinner we went to L'isola del Teatro for Italian food. Lots of confusion and some interesting interpretations of food later (including my dinner smiling at me). We wandered home to bed.
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