Today we were packed and ready to go. Michelle had not been feeling well, so whilst she rested I ducked out to take some last minute photos of areas I had not been to yet in Varona. At 10.30 we were picked up and driven to the train station in good time. It's now a logistical exercise in luggage management to get us onto and off a train, whilst finding luggage space is our new challenge on trains. This train trip was spent getting the photos up to date on this blog. Note on travelling by train in Italy. You don't know your carriage position on the platform in advance on busy services until the few minutes before you have to board. Try & decipher your ticket and get ready to move! Once the numbers come up you have a platform full of people attempting to relocate. Luckily R is tall and can lift/heave bags fairly easily on to the train then up on luggage racks. Some trains have space for larger luggage handy, some don't. You often do not even know which platform you need to be on until 10-15 minutes before departure, there can be up to 20 platforms in larger cities. The train station can be on 2-3 levels and have many entrances & exits, read the signs! Expect to pay €1 for the privilege of using the bathroom and good luck on your mission in actually finding one before your train leaves. The trains are almost always on time to the minute, don't be late! After all this it is an efficient, reasonably priced and easy way to get about. There are many ticket machines at the stations (set your own language) and staff are helpful if you have time to get your queue number and wait! A layover in Milan of 45 minutes then had us in a local train to Varenna our destination on Lake Como for the next three days. What a change in scene yet again. Italy continues to throw up new surprises, and this is a very picturesque surprise. We were met by our host at the train station and taken around the block (as the accommodation is right below the train station) to our new apartment. Yet another by well equipped apartment, this time including full coffee machine, and two therapy showers with music incorporated into them (don't have any thoughts of having this fitted in your bathroom Abby). We effectively have a his and hers bathrooms side by side with identical fittings. Very luxurious. And OTT for two of us, where are you girls? We undertook our usual reconnaissance of the town, and identified a very large garden we would like to visit along the lake front. It's a small and easily walked village, which has character. The weather was hazy and very moody which made taking photos challenging. The tops of the alps have snow, but not nearly as much as we expected. The clouds looked threatening, but did not get in the way of a beautifully muted sunset. We took time out to try a drink everyone in Italy appears to be drinking, an orange Spritzer, along with delicious bruschetta as a pre-dinner/ late afternoon snack, on the lakes edge, watching the very regular car & people ferries zipping across the lake. A further walk followed by a very nice dinner of crepes, risotto, and apple shortcake for dessert, watching the sun go down behind the clouds across the lake. We made it back to the apartment in time to avoid a major thunder and lightening storm with torrential rain. It was like being back in Malaysia or Singapore. Very impressive, and loud! We have been very lucky with the weather so far, and it looks like the next few days will be good as well. The plan is to travel across the lake to some of the towns and gardens tomorrow. See if we can increase our boat trips for this holiday above twenty!