On Saturday after a mammoth and stressful day of driving we arrived in the beautiful Menaggio on the gorgeous Lake Como! We chose to drive through Switzerland rather than France on our way to Italy and this turned out to be quite the wrong decision. Instead of being the fastest route, we ended up in a huge traffic jam outside and all around Luzern where we only moved 6km in nearly 2 hours! Luckily we found an alternate route, arriving only 4 hours later than planned! And thankfully we were arriving in such a breathtakingly beautiful place to restart our relaxing.

On Sunday Mum and I enjoyed a lovely craft and jewellery market on the foreshore of Menaggio and we spent the rest of the day exploring Menaggio and unwinding.

On Monday we made good use of the wonderful ferry network to visit Bellagio and Como. Bellagio is very different to Menaggio, with a much steeper landscape, and is much more touristy and densely populated. Como was nothing spectacular but the ferry ride there certainly was - a leisurely 90 minute ride past so many cute little villages, a gorgeous villa and George Clooney's house!

From our first night in Menaggio we also began our descent into the land of copious consumption of pizza, pasta and gelati. It's a very guilty but highly enjoyable pleasure! Having an amazing gelati shop just a minute away didn't help to assuage temptation..

It was a relatively slow few days, but in a place like Lake Como there is no better way to spend it. For Mum and Dad also, it was a nice relaxing change from the fast pace of the majority of their holiday. We will definitely be back here!