Arrival in Rapallo

Dad had found a hotel near the Cinque Terra, in a place called Rapallo. We arrived after an easy drive where Yours Truly was the navigator, and immediately I liked the place. We were convinced to upgrade to the penthouse which was cool, and there was a lovely view of the water! We dropped our stuff and did the obligatory initial walkabout:









view from our penthouse:



down the stairs OF DOOM


We went out for dinner here, but then went for more drinks and after many glasses of wine we were back in the hotel room trying to take night pictures. Amazingly, some of them turned out!





Dad fell asleep on the couch as mom and I talked away for a while. Eventually it was time to hit the hay though since as always there was something to explore the next day :)

Lago di Como by Ferry

We bought a day pass for the ferry system on the lake, so we could explore a few different towns other than Tremezzo, and this way we didn't have to take the car either!










here is Bellagio:





I think this is Menaggio now?





back in Tremezzo walking up to use the internet at the hotel



The view was beautiful from the hotel! Dad was looking at places to go for our next destination... we shared a bottle of wine and relaxed at our respective mini computers. Mom had bought a little one for herself so my computer had a brother for this trip!!

Tremezzo from Our House.

The next day they fixed our heat - they had just ran out of oil! It became nice and warm so the house got a lot cozier :) This is actually the view from my bedroom there:



I was pleased :)

the patio area:


our resident friendly cat!!



during a walk:


parent's bedroom


we tried a little pizza place for dinner which was also quite good, then we settled into the house since we were going to explore on the ferry the next day.

From One Lake to the Next

We left Lago di Garda to journey to another lake area... Lago di Como. The drive was kind of crazy - full of skinny roads, big trucks, and confusion with the GPS.






the GPS led us to a ferry (we weren't sure what it was doing at first - we were
skeptical)








We were going to stay in half a house, with a view of the lake and cozy atmosphere, so we went up to the hotel that owned the house to get the keys:




I dropped my stuff and went for a walk around the town we were staying at, Tremezzo.











I came back and my parents were stressed cause it was getting cold and the heaters were not working. The house was getting chilly, so we called the hotel and they sent someone to look at the heater.

It refused to work, so they offered to put us in the hotel for a night, and they would fix the heat the next day. The hotel was pretty fancy, and we were given a nice warm room so we were happy. The staff recommended a local little Trattoria for dinner so we headed down to try it out - they were right, it was good! They served us our wine in mugs which I thought was pretty funny:




sleep came easy :)