Milan Day 5 - 10/10/10 Day and Lake Como

Very excited about celebrating 10/10/10 day with everyone in Italy. You realize, this is the only day in your lifetime that will see a 101010 day ... so hope you celebrate. How about an 11/11/11 party next year? Anyone have 11 as their lucky number?

Lake Como from the boat

In honor of this glorious day, I took the kids to Lake Como. Luckily, our hotel is a short walk to Central Station, which -- similar to Central Station in NYC -- is a big, beautiful neo-classical building with thousands of people rushing through. Unlike Central Station, people are going to different countries! We quickly purchased our tickets (the train's destination was Zurich -- how cool is that?!) and headed toward the platform -- which was mass chaos.

The ride to Lake Como was about 30 minutes. I had thought I'd see some of the idyllic Italian countryside I'd always read about on the way -- but no, just industrial parks and scrubby buildings. This would turn into the theme of the day.

Alice and Leah chasing birds

Because, I had thought Lake Como would be similarly idyllic Italian town with cobblestone streets and views of a tranquil lake. Not so. The town is larger than you would guess, though it has that Italian feel with narrow streets and cobblestones. And there were several very old churches that we saw scattered about. However, it's sprawls out, has loads of noisy traffic and there are houses in every possible nook and cranny in the hills surrounding the lake. It was probably a very peaceful resort town at one time, now it's just very touristy.

After grabbing lunch -- ham and cheese, as usual, I don't think Italians eat anything else. We boarded a small tourist boat for a 30 minute tour of the lake. There was a boat that was a 1-hour excursion, but with two fussy kids, that seemed like a very bad idea. This turned out to be the right decision, as they both had minor meltdowns on board.

Clooney's Villa

Otherwise, the tour was very nice. There are many large villas on the lake, as you can imagine, including George Clooney's mini-palace -- which, surprising to me, is not very well secluded. It's actually incredibly non-secluded and nearly juts out into the lake. Tour boats pass his home regularly and so close you can practically see into his bedroom. Note to Hollywood: Clooney's lake house is NOT the place for a clandestine rendezvous or secret wedding.

On the way back to the train station (which is very walkable from the lake, btw) I had a nice conversation with a 70-year-old "granny" (as she introduced herself) who was waiting for a friend coming in from Milano. She revealed to me why Alice is getting so much attention. It's because she's blonde. Italians don't see many blonde children. It's fun to talk to strangers, no?

On the way back from the train station, I nearly wept when I saw a burger place that was open. I'm not a huge burger fan, but there was something about American cuisine that brought a tear to my eye. Of course I ordered a cheese burger and fries to go. Alice and Leah ate gourmet gelato from next store. It was a win-win.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the night partying like rock stars in our hotel room to celebrate 101010 day, charging up a huge hotel bill and nearly getting thrown out of the place. Or, depending on who you ask, we fell asleep at 10, after an exhausting day.