From the Inside Out

Two major highlights from today’s excursion were Villa Balbianello and Villa Melzi. Villa Balbianello is located near the quiet town of Lenno on Lake Como. In days past, the only way you could access it was from the water, but now you can get there by taking a short hike through the wooded area that surrounds it. Once you get there, you are rewarded with amazing views and an exquisite villa with an interesting past.

View from the gardens at Balbianello

Posing with the statues

The Villa Balbianello

You may recognize some of the areas if you watched Star Wars II — they filmed a few scenes on the property

Remains of an old church that was originally on this land. A Cardinal bought the property, kept the facade of the church and built his villa behind it. It’s five stories tall and has 16 rooms!

Look familiar? They filmed the hospital scene from Casino Royale under this tree

After touring the Villa Balbianello, we stayed in the town of Lenno and ate a late lunch at one of the outdoor lakeside cafes. Leaving Lenno, we caught a boat back to Bellagio. From there, we walked to the Villa Melzi. Here’s a picture I caught on the way there. I accidentally hit the black and white setting on the camera, but it turned out pretty cool!

Another B&W picture in the gardens of Villa Melzi

The lake entrance to the villa

Villa Melzi

After the Villa Melzi, we walked to the other side of Bellagio to the point (or punta). From here, you can get some great views of the mountains and villages across the lake, especially when the sun is setting. We just hung out for a while enjoying the beautiful evening and the picture that God was painting in the sky.

Back in central Bellagio, we had dinner at one of the ristorantes in the village. The food was great, but the most memorable moment was when Gary got his pizza — cheese with french fries! I’m not sure if this is an authentic Italian dish or just something they cooked up for the tourists, but he loved it…haha!

More new pictures from today are uploaded to the Bellagio Photo Album. Check them out if you’re bored.

We spent our first full day in Italy exploring more of the villages along Lake Como. After eating lunch in Bellagio, we hopped on a passenger ferry boat and went across the lake to Tremezzo where we toured through the amazing Villa Carlotta and its gorgeous gardens.

After Tremezzo, we jumped on another boat and went to Menaggio.

Our final adventure for the day was Varenna.

We wrapped up the day with dinner back in Bellagio.

More adventures tomorrow! For all of today’s pictures, check out the Bellagio photo album.

Our trip to Bellagio started early on Wednesday with a morning flight from DFW to New York. We arrived slightly after 1 pm ET and had a lengthy layover at JFK. After traipsing through all of the airport stores, checking email, and eating our last American meal, we finally stepped onto the plane bound for Milan. Eight hours later, it landed bringing us one step closer to our final destination.

The local time was 8 am when we arrived in Milan. We grabbed our bags, went through passport control and customs, and then met our driver who would take us all the way to the city of Bellagio situated on Lake Como. He was a cheerful fellow who spoke good English, so we chatted with him for most of the 2-hour drive, learning more about Bellagio and Milan — even talking about some American politics, Obama and Michael Jackson.

The drive was scenic, especially as we neared the villages of Lake Como. At times, the road would narrow to a single lane that curved through the tiny towns on the lake. Even though it was only one lane, traffic continued in both directions. There were a few times I thought we were going to scrape sides with the oncoming vehicles, but we magically passed through only a few inches away from each other. It didn’t bother our driver one bit, but I was really happy I wasn’t driving!

Finally, we arrived at our hotel, the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio. It’s beautiful!! We took it easy today because we were both tired from the long trip and jet lag. We explored the areas close to our hotel, enjoyed the lovely weather, and relaxed near the lake. Tomorrow, the real adventure will begin. Here are just a few highlights of the day. For more pics, check out my Bellagio photo album.

Outside our hotel, which is located right on gorgeous Lake Como

Bellagio, and the water taxi

The gardens and lake access at the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni

Private pier at our hotel — isn’t the lake beautiful? Like a postcard!

Cobblestone streets, shops, restaurants, and gelato

Walkway by the lake in the center of Bellagio

The main staircase in our hotel

The hotel at night

It’ll be a short blog post tonight as I have to get up in four short hours to catch a flight. I’m heading to Italy for a few days to relax, rejuvenate, and restore my sanity — especially after today. It’s always a nightmare at work right before you’re about to leave!

My blogging may be irregular over the next few days as I may not have great Internet access at my hotel; however, don’t let that stop you from checking the site for updates. When I am able to connect, I’ll upload pictures and give you the play-by-play of my Italian adventure.

Arrivederci!

You may be surprised at the answer. In this case, a carrier pigeon was the undisputed winner in a race to move 4 GB of data between two towns. Unlimited Group, an IT company tired of struggling to use the Internet in South Africa, staged the race. The pigeon, Winston, flew between two of the company’s offices carrying a data drive with 4 GB of data. He flew 60 miles in about 2 hours according to the BBC. Only 4 percent of the data was transferred over the Internet in the same timeframe!

This report offers yet another reason why I’m glad to live in North America — fast Internet speeds. The US ranks 17th on the International Telecommunication Union’s list of countries with the best Internet and communication technologies. South America ranks 87th. Surprisingly, Sweden and South Korea are at the top of the list.

Carrier pigeons have been used for many years to carry messages. According to The Hallowed History of the Carrier Pigeon, “The first message-bearing pigeon was loosed by Noah. The ancient Romans used pigeons for chariot races, to tell owners how their entries had placed. Genghis Khan established pigeon relay posts across and Asia and much of Eastern Europe.” Pigeons were also used during both WWI and WWII. They are even used today to carry blood samples from remote regions of Britain and France.

I was surprised to learn how important these birds have been throughout history. What’s even more surprising is that, even with the rise of the Internet, they are still the fastest way to transfer information in some countries. Who knew?