Lake Como.

The majority of days on this vacation went like this--get up in the morning, eat breakfast, drive 3-4 hours to a new destination, lunch and several hours of sight seeing/tours, dinner, more sight seeing, then off to bed so we could start the whole process over the next day in a new spot.  Tiring and busy, but we got to see so much this way--and at the end of the day we were exhausted and slept very well.

The drive to Italy from Switzerland was beautiful--tall mountains, long tunnels, steep roads, old towns.  After a fight with our GPS we ended up taking the "back way" to Lake Como (Wanda, our GPS, took us through about 27 roundabouts through the countryside when we could have just stayed on a major road.  Though it was an adventure, I am pretty sure I was sick of hearing her say "at the next roundabout take the second exit").

Me on our balcony--look at those beautifully manicured gardens in the background.

The view of Lecco from the balcony of our our hotel room.

The view of our hotel from the city of Lecco.

Me standing in Lake Como--cool but refreshing.  Have I mentioned yet how hot and humid all of Europe was?

We stayed in Lecco, on the opposite side of Como on Lake Como.  It was beautiful.  I loved the mountains surrounding the lake and the small towns nestled all along the waters edge.  We walked and walked and played in the lake. I can see why celebrities like it here--it really was picturesque. Unfortunately it did rain, so we did not take the ferry to the other side to drive the scenic route to our next Italian destination.