Sunday in Como

We love Italy, and one of our favorite spots in Italy is Lake Como.  We never get tired of the view.  Como is just a short train ride or car ride from Milan.  It has been so hot in Milan, that we thought we would escape the heat in Como.  It was hot in Como too!  Still lovely, but very hot and very filled with tourist.  I guess everyone came to look to see if they could spot George Clooney.  He owns a house on the lake.  Sadly, the ferry boats were on strike, so we were not able to take a boat to Bellagio for lunch.  Strikes are pretty common in Italy.  We opted to take the funicular which offers gorgeous views of the lake, and then afterwards we took a small charter boat for a 30 minute ride out on the lake.  Then before going home we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants for lunch.  One would think that I would have learned from our trip to Prague to look at the menu first.  The restaurant must have changed owners because the menu was not the same.  While the food was OK it wasn't as good as our previous visit.  At this point, I was starting to feel like our trip was some movie of comedy errors where everything you plan doesn't go as expected.  We skipped getting dessert and headed home because we found a really great gelato store in our neighborhood where the scoops are huge and the gelato super creamy.  Tip on finding good gelato is that it should be piled high, covered with lovely decorations , and if the customers customers before you walk out with small scoops then leave.  Where there is a high traffic flow you will usually find the more expensive scoops and the smallest scoops.  So walk a little and find a place that is a little off the main tourist attraction  The same goes for restaurants too.  Just because a restaurant may have a lot of customers does not make it good.  Look at the menu and the prices.  You should also know that if it is a sit down restaurant there is a fee to sit down of usually 2 euros per person.  This fee covers the table clothes and the tip of the waiter.