After our lovely couple of days in Zermatt taking in all the mountain air our hearts could hold we headed on to Milan. We were only Milan for a quick minute, but it served our purpose as being a cheaper place to stay for our visit to Lake Como which was a ‘can’t miss’ for both of us. Even though we weren’t there long, I couldn’t let it go unmentioned because we had one really outstanding meal there.

The joint was called La Bottega del Vino and its right near Park Sempione. It is actually a wine bar that has about 3 or 4 mains offered along with a bunch of appetizer type goodies. This was our first meal in Italy and therefore  we were out of the land of menus in Deutsch and in the land of menus in Italian. Y’all, I know zilch, zero, nada Italiano. So, after a brief moment of being completely overwhelmed with the fact that this was going to be our lives for the next two weeks, I got over it and randomly pointed to something. That something was seared scallops in a lemon pea sauce with bits of candied lemon peel. Thank the Lord I didn’t know what I was getting or I probably wouldn’t have ordered it. {I love, love, love scallops but the Kiwi is allergic, so I tend to steer clear so that he will still kiss me. Oh, the things I do for love.} The Kiwi also went with the randomly pointing method for ordering and his was a winner too! Strips of grilled beef over grilled veggies served on a piece of slate. So folks, the moral of the story is when in doubt, be adventurous. You can always swap with someone else at your table.

other Milan + Lake Como tips

Milan is a great base for a visit to Lake Como if you want somewhere cheaper to stay. There is a local train from Milan to Como that takes an hour and costs 10 euro round trip. It leaves every hour from Garibaldi {right near La Bottega del VIno}.

The fast ferry boat is fast, but the view is crap. We took the fast boat out to Bellagio where we spent the day exploring, but then we took the slow boat back so that we could take in the scenery, take some pictures, and work on our sun tans {read: burns}.

Climb the roof of the Duomo! It was seriously one of the most beautiful rooftops I’ve ever been on, and I’ve been on a few. However, ladies {well really everyone}, if you want to go inside the Duomo afterwards make sure your knees and shoulders are covered or you have something with you to cover them or you’ll be turned away like I was.