Montalcino

Took a great drive out to Montalcino to have lunch at Il Leccio. We had a very 
good lunch probably the best meal so far, for me at least. The views along the 
drive were really amazing.

Swing Park

Sunday we took the boys to a park in Cortona and walked around the flea market. 

Assisi

For the better part of a week we have been on the road, and it has gotten under our
skin. Once we gotten home we started to plan our next road trip to La Maremma. 
Today we drove down to Assisi and walked around the very clean town and visited 
a few of the churches.  Peter and Townes nearly killed each other over a cone of 
chocolate gelato. Next time I will have to buy two cones. We stopped at Lake 
Tarismeno, then drove up to Castel Girardi for dinner.  

Home

After taking full advantage of the Swiss Diamond's all you can eat buffet we packed
ourselves in to our little Saxo for the long drive home from Lugano to Cortona. 
We were treated to shafts of light cutting through the clouds illuminating the 
valley below once we arrived home. 

Varenna & Bellagio

We woke up to rain and fog on Thursday morning. We had a big buffet breakfast at the 

hotel did so quick research on Lake Como, and stumbled upon a town called Varenna 

which was described as being heavenly. So we set out to find Varenna. We drove to 

Managgio and then drove the car onto the ferry for the fifteen minute ride across the 

lake. Once we docked in Varenna as if on cue the rain stopped and the fog started to 

clear. Varenna ia gorgeous little lake town which would be really nice to visit in the 

summer when it's alive.

The geography around Lake Como and Lugano is amazing it is as if the mountains

rise straight out of the lakes. There are great tunnels cut into the mountains so 

you can drive around the lake. It was a really perfect day that I would gladly repeat. 

We then drove down to Bellagio to explore.  We took another ferry back to Varenna 

to spend a little more time there before taking the ferry back to Managgio. 

We drove down the eastern shore of Lake Como to Como Nord for dinner in a little 

grotto restaurant which may have been our best meal of the trip so far.