Places to Go (Vacation) - LAKE COMO, ITALY (Days 8 & 9) - Dragging Our Kids Through Europe, Part VI

So this was the view from the balcony of our rental house in Sala Comacina, Italy, a tiny town on Lake Como.




But to get there we had to take a train to a crazy bus (so. many. cliffs). Oh well, nobody ever said travel was easy.













Luckily, upon arrival, we quickly discovered we were (possibly) in paradise. When I planned this vacation, Dan and I would agree on a destination and then I would look for a local place to stay, but when I found Rosie's house on airbnb, I decided we NEEDED to spend sometime there, even though I'd never heard of Sala Comacina (has anyone?). And a small town ended up feeling wonderful after a week of big cities.

The house was literally right next to the beach, so we could wave at Dan on the balcony while swimming. Of course, my kids couldn't decide on when to swim, P insisted on diving right in; whereas T had to watch P before he entered the water as well.




Seriously, does the world get more beautiful then this? (I'm assuming the answer is yes, I just haven't seen it yet).




For dinner, we walked to this wonderful pizzeria/restaurant right on the beach. F and I decided to be adventurous and order the local specialty of salted sardine-sized fish. I was not very impressed, but F ate them all (even the heads). T continued to live on pizza margarita.













For our first full day at the lake, we rode the ferry to Varenna and hiked up to a castle overlooking the lake. The day was crazy hot (which was sort of unfortunate as we traveled to the lake to escape the heat) and the girls complained most of the way, but T was so excited about seeing a "real castle" that he kept our momentum up (even I might have just turned around). And the castle did not disappoint, it had "real" weapons and armor that we could try on and play with. Possibly the happiest I've ever seen T.






We had planned on stopping in Bellagio on the boat ride home, but everyone was exhausted, so we chilled on the ferry and after a quick swim, walked to our (now) favorite restaurant for another dinner on the lake.

Paradise, seriously, paradise. Even in the heat.