Day one, done

I left you here in the middle of the afternoon, and the last question mark was: do we stop for a mid-day shower or go explore.  It turns out, the answer was both.  Cas and I rapidly cleaned ourselves up with the quickest of quick showers- just to the point where we felt human again, and took off with Jeff and Reema.  We walked through the tower in Como to the city center, which was behind a very old wall.  In there, we wandered streets that felt like really wide sidewalks, and that’s how we treated them, until I realized that cars were headed our way.  So maybe, we walk off to the side.  Gotcha.  We were all getting pretty hungry- the breakfast of the airplane was juice or coffee and a muffin, which was very good, but our sense of time is so wackadoodle, it’s hard to say what we should eat and when.  I have always heard that you should land in a place and power through until that place’s regular bedtime.  You’ll be tired and a little goofy but you’ll be on track for the rest of your visit.  We’ll, I hope that’s true this time, because it was really hard to help the eyes open.  

On our walk, the four of us went past a church, a dome (duomo), a series of very cool, old buildings and a bunch of shops until we found a place that would sell us a few truly amazing pizzas and a bottle of wine.  Italy moves at its own pace, and it takes a moment of adjustment if you’re used to American style restaurant service.  Honestly, the waiters aren’t in such a frantic rush to see you, but you’re not in such a frantic rush to eat.  You just sit at the table on the sidewalk and watch the world go by- sip your wine and have a lovely afternoon.  It was just what we needed.  

From there, we walked to the lake itself.  It is a gorgeous lake with blue water and boats all lined up, ready to go for a quick trip.  None of us had slept more than an hour at a time on the flight over, so the long walk was just about enough to persuade us a trip back to the hotel was in order.  Jeff and Reema later admitted they grabbed a nap, but Cas and I tried to stay awake.  I admit, I drifted in and out a little, but this room has one chair and one bed.  If it had two chairs, I may have sat instead of laying down, and there may have been some narrow chance I could have stayed fully awake.  Nevertheless, we had to make it down the stairs by nearly 6 so we could get a full run down of our details and our tour from its director.  After that, we headed out to a welcome dinner with the rest of our tour group.  It was a pretty large, unruly bunch, and the restaurant brought out carafes of wine.  As good as it was, it didn’t take much time or much wine for me to start to think I may end up with my face splashed down in a plate of noodles.  

No matter, it was a great day, a great meal and a fun time.  I will now share, without comment, a photo I took of my big bother drinking a mochachino

And that’s all she wrote today.  I am too tired to say anything else, which is good, because I am too tired to go out there and do/see/write about more interesting things.  See you tomorrow for a lake cruise, folks! 

Check out the photo album here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PR6jn1ZzhDS6cx8q8