Bellagio, Lake Como, Italy June 27-29th

Early Friday morning we left the Cinque Terre and took a 3 hour train ride to Milan.

 We had a quick connection and had to shove all of our stuff onto an extremely crowded 1 hour train to Varenna, a small town on the shore of Lake Como, Italy.

In typical Fowler fashion, we trecked our way through town with 10 bags, 10 people, 2 babies and 2 strollers towards the ferry dock.

We boarded the ferry and headed to our destination, Bellagio. 

These two were very glad when we finally found our hotel after walking the long way up a huge hill! We had dinner at a resturant with a gorgeous view of the lake and watched as the sun set behind the mountains. Needless to say, this beautiful evening was a great introduction to Lake Como.

Day 2:

We had all been excited to go canyoning in Lake Como and were thrilled when we woke up and it was not raining. The weather had said 90% chance of rain, and if it rained too hard it would have forced our guide to cancel our canyoning adventure. 

As usual, we were running late in the morning and had to run the mile through town from our hotel to the ferry dock. We made it with just minutes to spare and boarded the ferry. The highlights of the ferry ride, other then the views of the quaint lake towns, were seeing George Clooney's estate and a very cool hotel with a pool in the lake!

We met Claudio, our canyoning tour guide, at the dock in Lecco were shuttled up the mountain to get all our gear on. This turned into a family bonding session as we all had to change and get ready outside on a tarp!

Then the adventure began. It started with a 45 minute hike straight up the mountainside. Let me tell you, hiking up a steep mountain on a humid morning in a 5mm thick wet suit sure can get your heart pumping! And this wasn't even the exciting part! The next 4 hours we spent repelling, cliff jumping, and sliding down natural rock water slides. The two highlights for me were watching the boys play tug of war with a huge tree that had wedged itself at the bottom of one of the water slides and getting to cliff jump inside a pitch black cave! As we walked through the canyon we could look up at towering cliffs covered in lush vegetation. Overall it was such a fun time and I am so glad we got to do it with this group!

By the time we finished and returned back to Bellagio we were all exhausted, but excited to see our babies. Thanks to Grandma Mimi and Colie who took such great care of them!

We all got all cleaned up, even the babies,

and as we were about to leave for dinner the downpour began. Luckily our charming little hotel, Hotel Fioroni, had a plethora of umbrellas to save the day. 

Being our last night in Italy, we had a big pasta dinner and finished it off with gelato! The rain left the town feeling fresh and smelling of fresh flowers! After our short holiday we all agree, Lake Como is charming and a great place to add to an Italian itinerary!