We are hardcore. We must be. Today was a national holiday in Europe and ordinarily that means hordes of people out in streets, plazas, restaurant, bars, amusements, cars, buses, boats and trains. But the weatherman was correct in his 100% rain forecast today. It was raining when we woke up this morning and it just stopped about 2 hours ago around 6 pm.

We made breakfast of eggs, bacon wrapped sausages and some of our extra special cheese from Zurich. Heavy indeed but we needed it! We had traveling to do in the rain. Waste no day!

First we walked in steady rain to the bus station carrying a big bag of laundry to drop off for cleaning. We found it ok but the laundry was closed, dumb bunnies, today is a national holiday. We went ahead and bought our scenic bus tickets to Bellagio and then walked back in the rain to the apartment to return the dirty duds. We had some time to kill so we hand washed socks, etc. Then out in the rain once again! Still in good spirits we caught the C30 bus along with a full bus of other diehard tourists -- no one else was out in this dreary weather even on this national holiday!! At least, the good news was a few of our fellow passengers spoke English! The one hour ride from Como to Bellagio followed the tightly winding road along the mountain rising out of Lake Como. It was so narrow that we had to stop occasionally so that tiny compact cars could pass in the opposite direction. Villas were built into the mountainside to the left and higher to the right. All were built many years ago; some looked loved; some looked as though they could use some tender loving care. Still they each have hillside views of the huge lake below and miles of villages on the other side of Lake Como. The views from our bus window were nice and probably, spectacular but the rain drops on the outside of the window and the fog on the inside of the window meant we could only guess at the beauty we were passing and certainly no good photos could be captured. We kept wiping the window down but as soon as we got it cleared, it fogged again.

Bellagio is fabulous!! It is probably a very special, exclusive holiday destination. It is very, very pretty, all flung upon a mountainside. Although it was still raining, we walked the alleyways of shops offering ceramics, shoes, ties and scarves, pricey purses and belts, and exclusive antiques. There were plenty of restaurants, coffee shops and bars too . . . They were all full; why? It was raining!

I'm sure we only got a glimpse of Bellagio but we were tired of being wet. I mean sick and tired. We bought our 5 pm bus tickets back to Como and spent the next hour before departure time enjoying a nice bowl of spaghetti, a hard roll with wonderful olive oil as only the Italians can make it and a glass of vino.

Back in Como, we made hay in the sunshine. Ha! That's funny! It was still raining. We did make ourselves productive though and stayed on the bus until it reached the central train station. We went ahead and bought our reserved seat train tickets to Rapallo for 10 am on Wednesday morning. Check!! Ahead in the game!

On our walk back to the apartment we stopped by the grocery which thankfully was still open late in the day on this national holiday. We picked up a few items for the house because once we return to the warm dry shelter there, I doubt we will leave until we see sunshine on tomorrow or maybe Wednesday.

Gnip-gnop!