Last Thursday, after our early flight at the crack of dawn out of Dublin in the rain, we arrived at Milan, picked up our rental car and headed out towards Como. Definitely not the most relaxing drive, especially as you approach the lake, but arrived into warm, sunny Bellagio in good time and checked into our apartment - Apartment La Terrazza Lake View.

After unpacking and settling into the apartment we headed downstairs to La Bellagina pizzeria for a bit of lunch followed by a walk down into and around Bellagio. For dinner that first night we ate at Hotel Metropole on the waterfront, with a perfect view looking out onto the lake. After a fairly long day and having been up since 3, we called it a night after dinner.

On Friday morning we woke up to rain and thunderstorms - just when we thought we had gotten away from the rain in Ireland it landed up following us to Italy! In all fairness, it wasn't too bad, Andrea (the landlord) did say it was just meant to be raining on the Friday and clear up after that, so landed up using that day to chill out a bit. After a good bit of cheese and wine for lunch at Aperitivo Et Al, we followed it up with coffee and dessert down on the waterfront at Hotel Florence.

From Hotel Florence we headed up through Villa Serbelloni to have a look at some of the classic cars which were parked outside there, no idea what they were there for but always good to see them. From there we headed back to the apartment and chilled out there for the rest of the afternoon while the rain and thundershower came down. I guess since we knew it was only for the day we didn't mind too mind, and relaxed away in the house. That evening we made our way into Bellagio for dinner at Ristorante Bilacus and then headed back home via the park gardens.

Yesterday was Una's birthday so we started off with breakfast on the terrace, then a walk down to Pescalla and lunch at La Punta. We decided for the afternoon to do a walking tour of Villa Serbelloni gardens with the most stunning views all the way around! After our tour and a gelato in town we made our way back to the house and relaxed away with some Prosecco on the terrace, taking in the view of the lake and the mountain. For dinner last night we went down to Hotel Belvedere which was fairly quiet and felt as though we had the balcony terrace to ourselves.

This morning we started off with a muffin and coffee for breakfast at Bar Caffe Rossi on the waterfront and then caught the ferry across to Varenna. After a brief walk around Varenna we figured there wasn't enough sun there so caught the next ferry up to Villa Carlotta and toured around the gardens and into the villa. From Varenna we continued up by ferry to Tremezzo to check out the Grand Hotel Tremezzo and decided on lunch down at the beach snack bar. As impressive as the Grand Tremezzo Hotel was, we're both glad we decided against staying there - just a bit too much on the main road and busy for us. From there we walked up to Cadenabbia ferry stop and ferried over to Varenna to catch the evening sun over a few drinks and nibbles at Nilus Bar.

After sometime just chilling there at the bar we decided to take a walk around Varenna, watch the sunset and then catch the ferry back to Bellagio for the evening. So far half way through the holiday honeymoon and loving it! Only complaint is that it's going by too quickly :(