Jack & Jo's European Adventure: Paris, Milan, Lake Como

I have just woken to a beautiful sunny morning, we are in a villa on the bank of Lake Como, in a little village called Lezzeno, near to Bellagio, it is absolutely gorgeous, so many people told us Lake Como is beautiful and it is, in fact it is hard to describe just how so it is. We arrived here yesterday by train and bus from Milan, where we spent two wonderful nights as our first destination in Italy.

Our last day in Paris was fantastic, we spent most of the morning in bed admiring the views of the river Seine, Jo caught up on some laundry, whilst I caught up with blogging our trip, it was a very relaxed morning. We ventured out for lunch a little after 12 heading for what we thought was a small and inexpensive bistro, however when we walked in we found it to be a fine dining restaurant, with few tables available, we were however offered a small table. The food was amazing and I got to try two things I had said I would like to try whilst in France, as an entree, foie gras and for the main course pigeon, both were divine, I had an amazing desert to finish the meal. Jo has no idea what she had, all she could tell from the names were 1 or 2 ingredients, she loved both courses however.

After lunch we found our way to Champs-Élysées taking the walk to the arc de triomphe, that was a spin out, the fashions and the expensive shops and cars along the way, going into a small deli and seeing magnums of champagne for sale, quite bizarre. We headed back to our little island on the batobus taking in the sights along the river, where we met our hostess at St Regis Cafe for a quiet drink, which turned into dinner, it was a lovely way to finish our tie there.

The next morning we checked out of Paris and took a taxi to the Gare de Lyon train station, where we boarded our train for Milan. The train journey was fantastic with some beautiful views along the way, travelling by train is the best way to go.

Our time in Milan was short, just 2 nights so we spent our day there travelling around the city on a hop on hop off bus tour, we had a great day, however felt a bit ripped off with the bus tour as we were at one stage told to leave for an hour while they had a lunch break, then later told we would not get to where we wanted to go as they were knocking off at five, which meant a very long walk home. We got very little for our 20 euros, lunch in Milan was a rip off too, 21 euros for 2 sandwiches and glasses of coke. Other than that the day was great and we ended the day at the same point we started at a little bar, which really was a bottle shop with a couple of tables out on the footpath. Buying a beer and walking the street drinking it is acceptable here it seems, with 660ml Peroni's at 2 euros each, they were great value and we sat and shared four of them before heading back to our apartment a little bit happier and feeling less pain in our legs.