Im behind on blog writing.  Just exhausted from our trip to Milan.  The day after the Dolomite tour that lasted over 12 hours, we went to Lake Como.  We took the bus to Como and had a tour of a beautiful public garden.  The garden was part of a palace estate.  There was a beautiful fountain in front of the palace that had just been restored and water had started flowing just the day before, so we didn’t get to see the full effect with a filled fountain.  It has giant Dolphins being ridden by cherubs.  We spent some time in town, going through the Cathedral and checking out the shops.  In this cathedral, the life sized statues of Mary and Jesus have real hair…from the nuns. And it has two huge and beautiful organs.  One is being played and the music is awesome.  There was a man in the cathedral piazza playing a grand piano.  You never know what you will see!  Lots of beautiful flowers and trees in bloom.  As we were meeting our guide to board the boat, the sky opened up and the rain poured down.  Hope that piano was able to be covered or moved.  We all bought umbrellas.  We then boarded our boat for a two hour boat ride on Lake Como to the town of Bellagio.  The lake is shaped like an upside down Y. We boated along one part of the Y and then continued along the base to Bellagio.  The Lake is surrounded and split by beautiful mountains.  All up the mountains and down to the shore are the beautiful homes and villas.  We saw George and Amal Clooney’s villa.  First, there are two large guest houses, then a huge garden that looks like a forest, then a gazebo close to the Villa where they live.  The boat was large, with a covered upper deck, and inside room and the. A covered lower deck.  The rain made the floors and stairs slick.  A young mother with a baby on one arm and her cell phone in the other fell on the stairs.  It was obvious she hurt her back, but the baby was ok.  We arrived in Bellagio and immediately climbed a huge flight of old stairs to find a restaurant for lunch.  Shops and restaurants line the stairs.  We went to one our guide had suggested and I ate a local dish.  Rissotto with lightly breaded perch filets.  Very good!  After lunch, we had time to sightsee and shop.  The local church was small and mostly sweet with a very strange altar.  To one side of the main altar was a small chapel with a lovely mosaic of St. Anthony with the Christ Child in arms.  The altar on the other side had a beautiful mosaic of Mary.  The main altar had a mosaic of men surrounding a saint (as noted by gold halo) who was prostrate and getting ready to be hit in the head by a man wielding a huge wooden mallet.  There are beautiful silk shops in Bellagio with exquisite scarves and silk ties and some clothing.  While waiting for another boat ride, we got to visiting with a family of three.  Big brother, sister and brother’s wife.  They were from Altlanta and had come to Milan for the wedding of the sister’s son.  Also met two ladies from New Jersey.  One had just gotten her Master’s Degree.  She has three almost grown children and her oldest is thinking about attending SMU.  I offered to be her ‘Dallas Mom’ if she did.  Show her the sights and help in an emergency if she got sick, etc.  Nice ladies.  We had a short boat ride to catch our bus for the ride home.  Picked up sandwiches when we got back.  To tired to go out to eat.  Suzanne didn’t get her own room this night as the convent was full.  We are jammed in the tiny room.  Not very pleasant.  But, we sleep like the dead.  More travel tomorrow.