The Gallahers: Italy: Day 1

Hello! So I'm finally able to post some pictures of our recent trip to Italy. Each place we went was so beautiful! We took 887 pictures! I'm going to eventually upload them to a photo website for friends and family to view, but I've decided to put some highlights on the blog. And since it's such a daunting task, I'm going to break it down by city and take 1 city a day.

Day 1: Varenna (which is where we stayed when we visited Lake Como, or as the locals call it, Lago di Como)

We flew out of Memphis at 2:00 p.m. on Preston's bday. We changed planes in Atlanta and then departed for Milan at 5:00 p.m. A 9 hour flight. We were scheduled to arrive in Milan at 2:00 a.m. our time, 9:00 a.m. their time. The flight was LONG and exhausting, cramped up in coach. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep. Not only was it impossible to really sleep, but we also had to get up and walk around to prevent to DVTs, aka blood clots in our legs. The one cool highlight of the flight was we got to meet a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, who had the actual medal with him and let us hold it. He was wounded in Vietnam and yet continued to run through enemy fire bringing his fellow injured soldiers out to safety. He was on his way to speak at some military function. Still not sure why a war hero like him was forced to ride in coach. Anyway, we arrived in Milan exhausted and in a different culture with a completely unfamiliar language. By the way, people who say Italian is like Spanish are wrong. So after finding a place to buy a train ticket, we board our first Italian train and set out on our way to Varenna.

Everyone warned us about thieves and pickpockets and we were told that one person needs to always be awake on the trains, otherwise someone could go through your bags. Well, neither one of us could keep our eyes open. It was miserable! Our train stopped at one point and a man woke us up saying something about getting off and we just sat there confused. A lady then came by and managed to communicate that we were at the last stop and must get off and board a connecting train. After some confusion, we finally got on board the correct connecting train, and before long we were enjoying some majestic views of the Alps!

Varenna was a beautiful little town. We wished we could have stayed longer than 1 night, it was so peaceful and gorgeous. We walked down to the town, winding around some narrow little roads, got kinda lost, and then we found our hotel. We stayed at Casa Rossa, a wonderful room rented by Albergo Milano (b/c their hotel was full when I tried to book it back in January). We were so glad we ended up staying in Casa Rossa though and will do everything we can to stay there next time. Our balcony opened up to the lake and a beautiful view of the Alps. After grabbing some lunch (our first pizza) and the first of many cappuccinos, we walk around the little town, enjoying the vistas. We decide to take a ferry tour of the lakes and all the towns on the lakes. The breathtaking scenery (and the cappuccino) had awakened me, however Preston kept dozing off. I told him I was tired too, but we were on a boat on Lake Como for goodness sake!! I took lots of pictures and kept an eye out for George Clooney, but never saw him. We came back and showered and dressed for dinner and then had a wonderful gourmet dinner at Albergo Milano. After that, our first official day was over and after being awake for 36 hours, we were able to sleep a wonderful night's sleep with our balcony doors open, listening to the waves crash against the shore and boats docked in the harbor. The most relaxing, peaceful sound we have ever heard.