Day 1 - Arrival in Milan, travel to Bellaggio and Sirmione

After a two hour flight from Denver to Chicago and an 8 hour flight from Chicago we arrived in Milan around 10:30am local time. Here's a tip... Drink fewer gin and tonics and get more sleep than we did on the trans-Atlantic flight. You'll feel better when you arrive! Italian immigration processed us speedily and we found our luggage in no time. And upon entering the terminal we were besieged by 6 or 7 small children holding notebooks and tape recorders. With my first, and very rudimentary, attempt at the Italian language I figured them to be Fifth (or was it Sixth) Graders on some sort of field trip to practice their English skills. Some of them were really quite good. And all of them knew more English than I knew Italian! They had a list of 'favorites' (food, rock group, sport, etc.) with which they quizzed each one of us. And their puzzled reactions to some of our answers were absolutely priceless!

We signed our lives away in renting a car - a Daewoo Nubira Wagon. And after a short period of tentatively orienting ourselves, we burst onto the Italian highway system. After all... This is not a place for one to be a timid driver. I was able to navigate us through Milan. Then we were headed north on the A9 autostrad towards Como.

Como is a bustling city with narrow steep streets. We meandered past the large cathedral and along the shore of Como Lake. We stopped several time along the 30Km route to Bellagio to admire beautiful churches and vast mountain and lake scenery. The weather was a little dreary, over-cast and occasionally sprinkling rain. This road to Bellagio is narrow - very narrow and twisty-turny. In the U.S. it would be deemed a "one-way." But the Italians drive it fast and fearless. They sweep within inches of the rock cliffs, the hardly present guard-rails and other vehicles all a-like! My friend was driving like a road rally pro.

Arriving in Bellagio we parked the car and gratefully set out on foot cruising around town. We stopped and had a bite to eat, brie and speck panini for me. We mused at how a world away, Bellagio reminded us much of Estes Park, CO, near our own hometowns, with its "touristy" shops among a beautiful mountain setting. One of the shops we visited had photographs of famous visitors to Bellagio - John F. Kennedy, Rock Hudson, Alfred Hitchcock and Larry Hagman.

We left Bellagio continuing along the cliff-like lakeshore heading towards Lecco. My friends videotaped the narrow winding roads and green country-side. We fought a rush hour of sorts in the industrial town of Lecco. And by this time we were really feeling the effects of the time change and our lack of sleep. We made it south to the A4 autostrad and headed east towards Verona. We began fumbling with the maps to find a place to stay, since it was quickly becoming obvious that we wouldn't make it to Verona for the night. And we chanced upon the first unexpected gem of the trip.

Sirmione is a small town on the tip of a peninsula jutting about 3 Km into Lago Garde. Travel guides say that it is to be avoided in July and August because of the crowds. In April it was simply wonderful. We booked a nice room at the Aurora Hotel about 1 Km from the castle at the tip of the peninsula. The Comune de Sirmione built in the first century by Augustus Ceasar. The warm light slants low in the evening and I could almost believe I was in an outpost of the Roman Empire.