Adventures In Italy - Day 5

Stop 11 - Milan Cathedral: After exploring Lake Como the day before, we got up in the morning and drove to the city of Milan. We visited the Milan cathedral and let the kids run free chasing pigeons in Piazza del Duomo in front of the cathedral. 

Stop 12 - Trolley ride: After the cathedral we jumped on the trolley and the kids enjoyed their first trolley ride. The kids thought it was fun getting to stand up and hold onto the pole while the trolley would stop and go. After the trolley we checked into our hotel and let the kids play in a park nearby. 

Stop 13 - Bosco Verticale: After the park we ran over to check out the Bosco Verticale building - a building that has over 1,000 plants growing on it. We finished our day off with our favorite meal in Italy which was pizza at the restaurant "Pizza 40" in downtown Milan.

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Adventures in Italy - Day 4

Stop 7 - Bellagio, Lake Como: We started the day off walking through the alleys of Bellagio to find some breakfast. The town was beautiful with long alleys leading up the hill. 

Stop 8 - Lenno, Lake Como: After breakfast we took the ferry across the lake to the town of Lenno where they have a small sandy beach. We let the kids play for a while and Maeli and Ryan took a quick dip in the super cold water. (Maeli was not too happy about the temperature.) While they jumped in, the boys and I sat up above and watched for fish in the water. 

Stop 9 - Agregno, Lake Como: When the kids were done at the beach, we boarded the ferry once again and headed to Agregno to ride the cable car up to the town of Pigra. The cable car ride was short and pretty cramped but once we were at the top we had fun exploring the crazy streets of the tiny village. The town of Pigra was really one of the coolest things we saw on our trip with old water fountains and small tunnels scattered throughout the town.  

Stop 10 - Como, Lake Como: After the cable car ride we found out that the next ferry back to Bellagio wasn't until later so we decided to take an earlier ferry over to Como. Upon our arrival into Como we had just enough time to grab a quick bite to eat before we had to jump back on the ferry to return to Bellagio. 

Once we arrived back in Bellagio we got some gelato and let the kids ride some small carnival rides they had on the lakefront. It was dreamy getting to just hang out by the lake with the lights from the rides lighting the sidewalks along the water. It really was the perfect way to end the day. 

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Adventures in Italy - Day 3

Stop 4 - Verona, Italy: For our first stop of the day we headed into the city center of Verona to see the Romeo & Juliet sites. As we walked through the streets we were impressed by the charm of the small city. Although the Juliet balcony and wall of love notes are a bit of a tourist trap, we enjoyed getting to post our own love note on Juliet's Wall. After posting our note on the wall, we could barely get a picture of it because so many people were stopping to read it and take pictures of it. We laughed because we did it for our kids not realizing how many people were actually going to read it. 

Stop 5 - Santuario Madonna della Corona: After our quick stop in Verona we headed to the breathtaking Santuario Madonna della Corona (a small church located on the side of a steep cliff). Unfortunately, it began raining in Verona and never let up as we drove to the church. When we got there, we turned off our car and found that the car wouldn't start when we tried to turn it back on. After getting a German couple to jump start our car, we still needed to go see the church so we turned off our car again leaving us stranded once more. Since it was still raining, we decided to take turns going to see the church so we wouldn't have to take the kids into the pouring rain. While Ryan went and saw the church, I called the rental company and when we swapped, Ryan got another family to jump start the car. Despite the chaos, the stop at the church was truly one of the coolest things we've seen in our travels. 

After leaving the church, we had to drive back to Verona only to find that the rental company didn't have an automatic car to replace our car with. Grudgingly, we drove  to yet another rental location and got the car swapped out. Once the car situation was finally taken care of, we drove to Lake Como and got settled into our apartment for the night. 

Stop 6 - Bellagio, Lake Como: Having had such a crazy day, we still hadn't eaten dinner by the time we arrived at our apartment. Milo was grumpy so Ryan and Maeli decided to do a mini date and get some dinner. They walked down to the town with Maeli riding on Ryan's shoulders. The picked up dinner and took a seat by the lake while enjoying some gelato together. Ryan described their date as being "perfect" and said that their chat by the lakeside was a moment he will never forget. 

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