Italy Day 2: Woke up, had a fabulous breakfast at the hotel (Best Western, it was nice to have some semblance of the US in the midst of Italy) And headed to the Duomo. We had seen the facade (what wasn't covered for restoration work) and the interior on the day before. Beautiful. The art inside was gorgeous and the pillars were huge, reminded me of when I went to the Redwood Forest in Cali. We then started up to the roof of the Duomo. It was this tight, narrow staircase that just kept going! We were very glad that we hadn't attempted it the night before while we were so tired! The roof is incredible! It is so intricate, I think it has almost 2000 statues on the roof/facade. It was amazing to me that someone had designed and created each one of those by hand and none of them were the same. The view was beautiful, and there was a violinist playing beautifully below, the sounds echoed off the church and just made the experience perfect. Then we stopped and got another Panza Rotti (so good) and hopped on the metro, picked up our bags and took the metro to the train. The train station was really cool. It was built by Mussolini, so as you can imagine it was grandiose. There were huge Dolce and Gabana advertisments all over the place. (like billboard sized inside the building) and most of the people were half naked. So then we hopped on the train to go up to Lago di Como, only to find after it was going that we had gotten onto the wrong train! I'm pretty sure they had it mislabled, but my husband is convinced it was his fault. So we had to stay on it until the first stop which Bryan kept a look out for and once stuck his head out the window and lost his favorite Yankees hat. All we could do was laugh about it. So went hopped a train back to Milan Central Station and waited for the next train to Como. We arrived in Como and took the long route to our hotel (not on purpose, but at least it was pretty) Checked in and went to find a boat to Bellagio. Gor-ge-ous!!!

The ride was breathtaking, a pristine lake surrounded by little classic italian villages on it's banks. Bellagio was a wonderful little town, we went and found a cheap and great pizzarea called "The Grotto", excellent pizza and they even gave me some ice when I asked for it. (yeah!!!) Then we walked around the town for a while and looked at all the little shops and I had my first Gelato.(heavenly!) As we waited for the boat to return we sat and watched a band set up right infront of the water. This little city was full of oldtime charm. We caught our boat after dark and rode home with all the lights dancing on the water and a nice cool breeze for the first time on our trip. On our walk home from the lake (about 3 blocks) we saw all sorts of parties underway. It seemed like such a romantic place to spend time with your spouse. I think we definitely need to go back there!