Delayed from 20th Aug….My mum had left England about 1am on Friday and somehow used her superhuman efforts to drive all the way to Lake Como by 5pm the same day!! We were not prepared for such extreme driving efforts and so we suggested a few hotels we had looked up and we planned to get there as soon as possible the following day. Mum was, as ever, extraordinarily generous by putting us up in a hotel for two nights. It wasn’t just any old hotel but a rather swanky one right on the shore of the lake (see first photo) and we couldn’t think of a better place to pretend to fit in with the Italian high flyers. Although actually I think everyone in the hotel was doing the same seeing as breakfast, although enormous, was devoured by all in an effort to make the most of it a d keep you going through lunch!

I only had assumptions about Lake Como and one fact…..George Clooney lives there (more of him later unsurprisingly) My first surprise was just how densely populated it is – I think I was expecting a quite sparse shore line with the occasional grand Villa but actually there are houses everywhere and some large slightly more modern towns. Having said that….the grand and typical Italian villas where also there in abundance.

We spent most of the Saturday catching up with mum and telling stories of our travels and hearing all about the spectacle of the Olympics and her other news. In the evening we took the local ferry into Como town and after a short wonder had dinner in a pleasant but incredibly over priced street restaurant. The fact the waiter said ‘wow you must have eaten a lot’ when he looked at the bill amount and then said ‘oh no you didn’t – the prices here are just very high’ – ha! We didn’t really expect any less from Como. The waiter was very entertaining and taught us the exact way to say ‘Grat..si..ay!’

The following day was mainly spent enjoying the hotel terrace and helping mum get in the holiday mood! We wanted to repay mum for her kindness for the hotel and so organised to hire a small motor boat for two hours on the lake……well I don’t think there is any other way to see Lake Como! Amazingly the hire company delivered the boat directly to the hotel which had its own jetty! We gave mum her captains hat and we were off! We set sail around 5pm so the sky had a beautiful evening glow. Turned out mum had never been on a small boat like this before so, after some initial wobbles(I was driving), we were all excitedly gliding through the water passing boats, villas and beautiful mountain ranges. Me and mum spotted Mr Clooney’s house and Dave made sure we didn’t crash into anything while I was distracted! It was a brilliant couple of hours and definitely the only way to get around in Como. We landed in a village near hour hotel and after an aperitif in Harry’s Bar we found a little place for dinner before making the walk home.

Lake Como does, as expected, ooze money and is definitely a play ground for the rich and famous – the fact that there are water aeroplane taxis landing every half hour and everyone cruises around in speed boats is testament to this. But it was also very beautiful and we are very happy we decided to take the trip there and that we joined in with our own little speed boat!