Happy Birthday Chris

Today we went on a trip up the side of Lake Como to catch a boat over Bellagio.  On the way we saw George Clooney’s home.  Apparently he will be home in June so we couldn’t drop in for a cafe.  Our guide was telling us that Jonnie Vercase left his home on the lake to his niece.  After a while she put it on the market for 13M Euro.  They were deciding whose bid to accept when a Russian came along and offered 35m Euro.  This has set a new benchmark in Lake Como and has affected all properties in the area. Lake Como is surrounded by the Alps and we could see the Alps of Austria and Switzerland.  So if we say we saw Austria and Switzerland we were not lying.

Cafe with George…not home

Bellagio is both beautiful and draining on the bank balance. The china in Italy is amazing, as is the leather goods, cloths, shoes…. We were supposed to explore the island however we had a very interesting tour of two shops.

We cruised around a part of Lake Como.  We saw a house the Guinness family bought as an investment to rent out.  Unfortunately they forgot about the 185 steps down from the road and no garages.

Steps what steps

The National Trust Estate has a house of the lake that makes a lot of money as a weddings’ venue.  It costs 1000 Euro for a simple civil ceremony and that doesn’t include the reception or getting the mayor to perform the ceremony.  You might recognise the tree in the garden as it is the tree in the James Bond movie when Daniel Crag is recovering from his injuries.

Daniel Craig recovered under that tree

Further on down the lake we found the location of our next June long weekend.  It costs $150,000 a week, breakfast not included.  A Russian hired it for three weeks for his daughter’s wedding.  I am starting to worry about validity of the Russian money being invested in this country.

Long weekend here we come

In the afternoon we went for a walk along the lake with the expectation of going up the mountain on the cable car.  It must have been the Maseratis or the Ferraris from Melano taking our attention  because we walked past it and took some time to realise it; anyway the gelato was good.

The Ferraris of the boat world  Boat shed too small I think?

The evening meal was in a local restaurant where we had a salad, pasta with three cheese sauces, steak done with parmigiano and rocket and carrot cake and lots of local wine. The steak was interesting because the cheese gave it a salty taste and the rocket provided the pepper.