I knew George Clooney had an Italian villa on Lake Como, and I even knew a little what it looked like since it was supposedly the really cool house you see in 'Oceans Twelve'. So of course today on the boat on Lake Como I had to look for it. I don't think I saw it but you never knew.
So yesterday we took the train from Venice to Milan, and then from Milan to Como. The train from Venice to Milan was very cheap, surprisingly, only 9.50 euros, which when the vaporetto in Venice cost 5.00 euros I was pretty surprised, but maybe that's why it took nearly 4 hours to get to Milan. Definitely the slow train!
Finally got to Como and we weren't really sure where our hostel was, the directions were pretty basic and said to 'take the funicolare and we are located there'. We didn't know what the funicolare was but figured out it was the cable car that goes up the hillside, across town from the train system. The nice guy at the train station said it was 400 meters but it was more like 4,000 meters. At least it seemed that way. We finally made it there, got on board, and looked up thru the tunnel to the track going nearly straight up the hillside. Of course I'm scared of heights but luckily it was so hazy you couldn't see all that much....
We made it to the top finally and got off the funicolare, but we still didn't know where we were going. Luckily the lady at the gelatto stand knew and pointed us in the right direction.
Our hostel ended up being in 'Brunate', not Como, and 750 meters above Como. Hence the funicolare. Brunate is a very quaint town overlooking Como and Lake Como. It's very picturesque and seems very quiet, so I wonder why nearly every single house or villa had a fence surrounding it completely, a locked gate, and lots of 'watch out for dogs' signs, as well as bars on the first floor windows. Kind of strange. Maybe an old mafia hideout? Brunate also has lots of narrow one way streets, and luckily we didn't get hit by any cars on the way to our hostel.
We are staying at 'Locanda Milano' and it is a really nice place. Mossimo is the guy in charge, and his mother works in the restaurant. After we got there, we decided to go for a walk and found the little local grocery store. The old man running it must have thought the American tourists were funny (or funny looking) because he gave us a free hazelnut chocolate each.
Back to the hostel where we decided to have dinner, only they weren't starting until 7:30. So we decided to have a glass or two of wine since it was only 2.50 euros, what a bargain. Mossimo was behind the bar and he said for us to have a seat and he would bring it to us, so we went outside and sat in the courtyard, where shortly later Mossimo surprised us with olives (I even tried one), tortilla chips, and potato chips. Interesting combo. We hung out outside until it was time for dinner, and then went in and sat down, the only guests in the room. Two German (or swiss?) ladies came down later. The dinner was delicious - I had a pesto pasta (it was called raw pasta, and we finally figured out that meant whole grain or unbleached pasta) and an awesome homemade tiramisu for dinner. It was really good!
After all of that I was pretty tired, so it was time for bed.
