"As I go back in spirit and recall that noble sea, reposing among the snow-peaks six thousand feet above the ocean, the conviction comes strong upon me again that Como would only seem a bedizened little courtier in that august presence."
Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (1869)

As soon as I arrived in the Lakes Region in the northern end of Italy and the south end of the Alps, I had a unquencheable yearning to climb to the top of the snowcapped peaks, as if the mountains were beckoning me. I could see them in the distance from every angle of every view in the near distance and it became an infatuation of mine to want to trek to the top of these barren summits, and the longer that it went unsatisfied, the more insatiated I became. I would have to wait the entire week, but would eventually get the chance to hurl mysellf from the top of one of those mountains, but lets start at the beginning.

The nervousness that I had felt for six months leading up to the trip about how the girls would react to, and behave, during an overnight flight across the Atlantic and across six time zones was quickly abated as the flight was fairly easy, and after a day of jet lag and a couple of nights in the Villa, the girls were back to their normal routine of sleep.

I had told Lindsay that a Fiat would not suffice for our family and our luggage, so as it turns out she rented a box car equivalent to a hotel shuttle bus which was very exiting to drive on narrow Italian roads, sometimes one lane wide, through hairpin roads that wound the lakes, mountains and coast. I even received a comment from another American traveler as we parked the shuttle in a space made for European sized vehicles, "how did you get that thing here?"

The Italian Lakes Region, which consists of Five Large glacial fed lakes at the foot of the Alps, is a beautiful and beguiling place. Historically, the region served as a place for nobles to retreat during the summer months to their palacial villas. Today, both descendents of the nobles who have been able to afford the upkeep, and modern noblesque celebrity now occupy many of those Villas. Lake Como, for those that keep up with their celebrity gossip, serves as a place for people such as George Clooney, Madonna, David Beckham, Paul McCartney, etc., etc. etc to call home.

As a reminder, we vacationed for the first week in Italy with the entirety of Lindsay's family in a Villa which was rented by her Grandmother in celebration of her 85th Birthday! It was myself, Lindsay, and our two girls, Lindsay's sisters Chelsea and Marrissa and their spouses Andy and Eric, along with Marissa's girls Chloe and Kenzie; Lindsay's cousin Greg and his girlfriend Carrie; Lindsay's Aunt Carol and Uncle Tony; Lindsay's Mother - the Grandmother formerly known as Nonna Donna, and of course 'Nanny.' We stayed at the 'Villa Camilla', a four story ten bedroom Villa on Lake Como that was likened throughout the week to Downton Abbey. The property was a 17th Century palace of sorts that was owned by the same family that had been bequethed it for 7 or 8 generations since it was used as a vacation home for the family when it was originally built. The property was georgeous and well maintained and seeing Daniela, the property manager, give orders to the staff of 8 to 10 people every morning, I can definitely agree to the likeness to a more modernized version of Downton! Except the bells, which would ring the servants, had been both upgrades to an electric buzzer which was then disabled at some point in the future. The Villa consisted of the quarters (11 bedrooms, 12 baths)., game rooms, sitting rooms, formal dining, living rooms, terraces, cooks kitchen, a pool, lit tennis court, gardens, wood house, ponds, playground, etc, etc, of which it took groundskeepers, maids, maintenance crews, to maintain, and Oh yeah, did i mentioned that we had our own personal chef for the entire week for breakfast and dinner! It was incredible!

Needless to say, we spent a lot of time on the grounds of the Villa, sitting to watch the birds, ducks and rabbits (or as Nanny calls them Hares) that inhabited the property, playing on the playground, swimming in the pool, playing tennis, fusball, table tennis, pool, or cards or lounging in one of the sitting rooms or verandas with an iPad or a good book. We also discovered paths onto the terraced hillsides and into the town of San Siro. The children were easily occupied as well. Every morning we awoke to a formal dining table filled with European meats and cheeses, fresh fruit, fresh warm pastries, juices and coffee. Every evening we sat outside on the veranda along a long table with a backdrop of the lake and mountains in the distance, whilst Giancarlo, our young chef of 25 years of age whom attracted the attention of every woman in our group from tha age of 2 to 85, cooked us a five course italian meal. Greg, Carrie, and Carol broke up the routine, and one night cooked us an equally delightlful meal.

The fears that I had about traveling with young children were not totally unabated though, as Bella fell ill and ran a fever for three days straight, most likely caught from sleeping on the floor of the airplane during the flight over. Lindsay and I finally had to take her to the Ospedale to get checked out, a nerveracking experiance that was made much easier since Daniela, our Villa's property manager, graciously offered to escort us and to translate for us. Thank you soo much Daniela!! We can't thank you enough.

We managed to get ouf of the Villa on occasion and took several trips into Menaggio and Tremezzo for lunch. Both towns have long lakefront promenades with the beautiful pastel colored buildings with swing out plantation shutters and spanish tile roofs of a postcard picture perfect setting that has been tried to be replicated at nauseam back in South Florida. The fauna around Lake Como was breathtaking. Most of the Villas had either English Gardens or Italian Gardens. I have no idea what either means, but they're refrenced in every other page of the guidebooks of the region. I will say though that I was very suprised at the amount of diversity of plant species in the area. There were imposing white pines and high mountain wildflowers intermixed amongst fruit trees, such as kumquats, lemon, chestnuts and olive trees, to subtropical and mediterranean varities of azelias, palms, cypress, etc. The place seemed to exude vegetation as every empty window sill, railing, rock or seawall found some sort of vivacious little flowers growing from them, with smells as sweet as a fresh market produce stand.

We took the ferry one day to Bellagio, which sits at the end of the crescent peninsula in the middle of the fork of the lake. The so called gem of Lake Como, and the most recognized city on Lake Como was nothing like the Casino that was built in it's name (as was expected), and equally as charming as the other lakeside villages, but I thought may not have lived up to the boasting that I had been predisposed to in regards ot the town. We ate lunch in Bellagio at a restaurant at the most Northern tip of the town with a panoramic view of most of the lake. The ferry ride was expectadly as exciting as Bellagio itself, and we were exposed to a moment that I could only imagine would have existed if a family were unwarrantedly split up when reaching Ellis island, as the Italian officials would not let part of our party back onto the boat without Bittiglia Blanca (the white ticket that Nohna had). For five whole minutes tempers flaired, children cried with outreached arms, and bad Italian was spoken with incontrovertable confidence as five Italian seamen told us to 'Calma, calma.'

On the third day at the Villa, I took Layla with me to try to go on a high alpine hiking experience. We drove up into the mountains to Bergamo and found a trail head that followed along a road up to an alpine base retreat. We reached a little over 5,000 feet before we had to turn back due to time, a couple thousand feet short of the glacial ice and tundra that I so longed for! But it was a beautiful hike and the scenery was nothing short of breathtaking and I was able to share a great one on one experience with my eldest daughter. We could see almost the entire lake from the picnic area that we stopped at near the top and drank some fresh glacial water from a pipe that had been tapped into the side of a rock.

So, I had my heart set on paragliding or hang gliding while in the region as I had longed to do so since the time I had hang glided in Interlaken Switzerland years prior. After tracking down the lone tandem paragliding operator in the region, my session was postponed several times due to weather until we finally got the green light to fly on our last day on Como. I met Pascal, my pilot on the north end of the lake and we took his pint sized SUV up a stomach bending roadway to the top of a mountain approximately 5,500 feet elevation. The tundra type vegetation hinted at the elevation where a small farm with bell encumbered cows inhabited the hillside. I looked on at the snowcapped mountains that where closer than they'd been the entire trip and realized I was again dumbfounded that imposing stone mounts were so much futher than I had realized. Previous experiences of high mountain altitudes (train rides to the Jungfrau, a beleagured hike to a glacier at the maroon bells that resulted in a trip to the emergency room for some stitches). had not triggered the sense in my brain to realize the scale of these snow laden mountains. Their heights seemingly superimposed on the mountians in their forefront, the ability to access their glaciers in most cases would not be done in a quick jaunt on foot or access by road. But somehow, the recognition of the scale of these mountains, in and of itself, was awe inspiring enough to fulfill me and the wanton need to scale these mountains quickly abated. So instead, I enjoyed the brilliant view that I had while my pilot prepared the shoot, then strapped in and walked quickly off of the side of the mountain. The twenty minute float down to the side of the lake went by in a flash. I tried to absoarb everything that I could on the ride down, but my senses were on overload, so luckily I will be receiving a "montage" video (as Pascal calls it) from two go pro cameras in the mail afterwhich I'll post on the site. The flight was possibly the highlight of my trip to the lakes; however, the excited anticipation and postponment of the flight probably heightened the experience.

We had fun with all of the family. That Saturday, some departed for home, while others, like ourselves, ventured off on our own to visit other parts of Italy. And to borrow an Italian saying, "Non ci ricordiamo dei giorni, ci ricordiamo dei momenti", we do not remember days, we remember moments, and "Avere una famiglia significa avere qualcuno da amare, avere una casa significa avere un posto dove andare, averle entrambe è una benedizione"--having someone to love is family, having somewhere to go is home, and having both is a blessing. We were blessed to have our whole family share many moments, to love, to share and to have a place that we could call home for a week in Italy!!