Monaco (Day 7, Part 2 of 2)

I meant to write this post a week ago, but I got sidetracked.  Our yard has been overrun with rabbits, so we put wire fencing up.  It was a big, hot job, but we're hoping it will help!  Anyway... back to our final full day in Europe.

 

The drive from Milan to Monaco was as exciting as the drive to Milan.  Lots of curving mountain roads with narrow lanes and lots of traffic!  We were having a great time, so great that our navigator missed a couple of key turns.  I'm just glad it was Lance and not me!  I get so stressed in those kind of situations.

Monaco is only about 15 miles from Nice, so our plan was to spend our final afternoon in Monaco before heading to our airport hotel.  Parking was quite the adventure!  We found a parking garage, but the first six floors were reserved parking only.  We kept going further and further underground until we finally came to level G.

Monaco is a beautiful, tiny country!  It is less than one square mile - smaller than New York's Central Park.  It is the second smallest country in the world - only Vatican City, which is considered its own country, is smaller.   It is also one of the wealthiest and most expensive countries.  It gained worldwide attention when American actress, Grace Kelley, married Prince Rainier in 1956.

After grabbing some lunch, we headed towards the top of Monaco.  Both the Palace and the Monaco Cathedral are in this area.  It was quite a hike and I thought this defibrillator was both funny and scary!  Thankfully, none of us needed it.

 

We spent our time just wandering in the cathedral and the gardens.

 

 We got to watch one of the guards.

 It was a beautiful final day of our trip!

Milan Cooking Class ~ Pizza and Gelato (Day 6)

 

Friday was our last day in Milan.  We had the morning to ourselves and did a lot of walking and window shopping.  Monica and I very much enjoyed going in shops together and our husbands very much enjoyed the fact that we didn't buy anything!  Milan is known as one of the Fashion Capitals of the World (along with Paris, New York and London.)  And while we saw many beautiful things, we couldn't imagine spending the kind of money they were asking.

 

I found another fun idea on Viator - Milan Cooking Class: Authentic Pizza & Gelato Making.  Our choices were for a 3:00 p.m. class or 6:30 p.m.  The four of us prefer eating earlier than Europeans so we chose the 3:00 class.  This ended up being a blast!  We met our chef, Matteo, in the Towns of Italy Cooking School.  This was located in a back corner, on the second floor of the central train station.  Thankfully, I had read reviews that gave good directions!

We started our lessons making our pizza dough.  Some of us were a little more experienced, but we eventually had our dough mixed, kneaded and rising.

While our dough was rising, Matteo made the gelato.  This was obviously something we couldn't all do since there would be too many large batches to process.  It was okay as long as I got to sample some!  We did get to make our own waffle bowls that were later filled with gelato!

We were back to our dough.  Groups of 5 were called up to start shaping their dough into pizza crusts...

 

 

And adding sauce, basil and mozzarella...

 

I didn't get any pictures of us putting our pizzas in the oven.  This was an industrial oven that baked our pizzas in 90 seconds!  Mama Mia!  They were delicious!!

Les is the only one that I got a picture of eating the gelato, but we all enjoyed it immensely!

 

Once class was dismissed we decided to hop a metro.  This took us from Central Station to the Duomo.  We were able to take a trolley to a couple of other sites, but we didn't take any pictures! What you see here are four happy, fed, and tired travelers!

Lugano, Switzerland ~ Swiss Chocolate Tasting (Day 5, Part 2 of 2)

After our free time in Como, our group reconvened and boarded another train.  This time we headed to Switzerland.  (Country #3 on this trip.)  Lugano is about 20 miles from Como, so it was a relatively short ride.  Although it is in Switzerland, Italian is the main language spoken in Lugano.  But they also speak my favorite language - Chocolate!

 

Our first stop was Läderach Chocolatier. So many wonderful aromas met us as we walked in!  I love chocolate in any form, but this was another level.

We enjoyed tasting four varieties - Strawberry White, Pistachio Milk, Blackberry Dark, and Orange Dark.

I'm sad to say we did not bring any chocolate home with us.  We walked out of the shop and thought we would come back on our way out of town, but that just didn't happen.  We followed Patrizia for a few more minutes then we had some more free time.

Just like Como, Lugano sits on a lake.  We made our way to the waterfront and just relaxed for a while.  It was hot and we were tempted by the pedal boats that were for rent, but we settled for a shady bench.

 

There were some unique pedals boats on the water - they had slides attached!  They looked so fun and refreshing.

We eventually met back up with Patrizia and the rest of the gang.  The train ride home was a lot more crowded, but we didn't have to drive or change trains, so that was a win.  It was a fun, full day!

Milan to Como and Lake Como Boat Ride (Day 5, Part 1 of 2)

 

When we arrived in Milan on Tuesday I started looking on Viator for things to do.  We knew we wanted to go to Lake Como and cross in to Switzerland.  The most popular tours included a train ride to St. Moritz.  After reading quite a few reviews, I wasn't sure it was something we wanted to do.  Most sounded like a lot of time either on a bus or a train that was over crowded.  

 

I finally stumbled on "Lake Como, Lugano, & Prealps with chocolate tasting. Small group."  Small group = two magic words when booking a tour!  I booked this on Tuesday night for Thursday morning.  Spoiler alert: it was a 5 star decision!

We were up and on our way early Thursday morning.  We met our group at Milano Centrale (Milan Central train station.)  Our guide for the day, Patrizia, introduced herself.  As we all introduced ourselves, we met a couple from Ohio, a family from Texas, and a couple from New Zealand.

Patrizia herded us to our train and ushered us in to the first class car!  I knew we were off to a great start!  It was about a 40 minute train ride to Como.  We stayed together as a group while Patrizia pointed out some of the highlights of Como.  Como was the home of Alessandro Volta (1745-1827.)  He was an Italian physicist and chemist credited with inventing the electric battery.  The center of Como is Piazza Volta with a large monument to Alessandro Volta:

Like most European cities, there are so many interesting buildings in Como:

 

Our amazing guide - Patrizia!

 

We stopped by "Dama Alla Finestra" - Lady at the Window.  This is a 16th century fresco.  There is a little bit of a mystery regarding who the lady was.  Some have even suggested this could be a man, due to what looks like whiskers.  Patrizia said, "You decide for yourself!"

We then boarded our boat for a ride on Lake Como.  Our tickets put us at the front of the line, so we had the best seats on the boat for our one hour trip around beautiful Lake Como!

This is a tram that goes to the top of a mountain:

 

Lake Como is known as one of the playgrounds for the rich and famous.  Villas have been built on its shores since Roman times.

 

After our boat ride we had about 2 1/2 hours to explore Como on our own.  This included lunch and shopping.  Les bought two ties and I bought this darling purse.  Made in Italy, of course!  It's a very small cross body bag, but what grabbed by attention was the extra pocket on the front - it's for glasses!  I'm constantly switching glasses when I'm going in and out and this is perfect.

We also wandered in to Duomo di Como (Como Catherdral.)  Construction began in 1396 (just 10 years after the Milan Cathedral was started) and finished in 1770.

I believe this post is long enough!  Part two will take us to Switzerland...