Parma, Lake Como, and George Clooney

After leaving Florence, we headed north and stopped for lunch in Parma, yes, the home of Parmesan cheese. Lunch was fantastic and of course we picked up some fresh cheese that we are still munching on...

We hit fabulous Lago di Como (testing my Italian!) and our mouths dropped. Our pictures are beautiful but don't give it justice. We stayed in Moltrasio, a small town with a fabulous hotel with all the amenities you could need, plus a pool on the lake! Both days we laid out all day and had a wonderful dinner looking over the lake. The second day we took a boat around the lake to find George Clooney's house and see some of the other cities. For those who don't know, George is one of my five (think of the Friend's episode) and I was on the hunt. Unfortunately he was in Venice but we did find his home - actually he has two and a beach and was only 5 km away from our hotel! We also found our dream villa if we ever hit the lotto....

We then went to the REAL Bellagio which is funny after being to the one in Vegas. The developers in Vegas did a good job but they cannot replicate the weather nor gelato (amazing ice cream in both Portofino and Bellagio).

This is hard to say but Dan and I loved Lake Como so much that it MAY be more of a paradise for us then Maui. We have to go back to Maui now and test it....we will be back to Lake Como one more time before we leave - only 7 hours from home!

All and all this vacation was needed - we relaxed, ate amazing food, drank lots of red wine, got great tans, and felt recharged. It was hard to say good-bye but we had good reason to head back. That night we had a going away party for our friends Scott, Susanna, and Lex who were returning to the US.

Take a look at the pics from Como. Will add the Wiesbaden Winefest (10 day winefest every August) and the going away party later this week...