Getting to Mandello del Lario

Breakfast on the plane was pancakes with berry compote, croissants and two cups of mediocre coffee. At the airport we had macarons from Ladurêe. The gentleman was none to pleased to serve us being too early in the morning for him. Dave had pistachio and I went for salted caramel. We then had a decent espresso before buying two books for our library. We had croissants and coffee on the plane before landing at Milao Linate. Europcar did us a huge favour consolidating our free rental with our paid for rental. So we’ve got a larger car for an extra €2. What a bargain. We then went to Ikea where the staff were rude and unhelpful. We finally found the two things we were looking for and walked forever to get out of the place. Never again!  

We drove to San Pellogrino Terme, driving through some exquisite villages on the way. We stopped and had ice cream. Pistachio for Dave and specialita cremo for me.  We bought lunch and drove to Taleggio. We drove over a very narrow bridge on the way there. The narrow road was unbelievable with the most amazing vistas and absolutely perfect for motorbikes. We stopped and had a picnic lunch and then drove on to Lecco climbing higher than 1.1 km just after Bergamo. The road had no railings at some places and a seriously steep drop. We headed for our B&B and first things first unpacked and had a shower. Not that you can call it that. We got wet under water. And my cleanser broke so we need to go shopping. Quite a bugger on a Saturday afternoon in Italy. 

Dave, Gianni (the owner of where we are staying) and I sat down in the courtyard to enjoy a bottle of wine. We were reciprocating his hospitality from the last time we were here. We were soon joined by another guest who is from Australia and a local young man. We had a great conversation with my translator app helping with words I don’t know. We then walked to the shops so I could get cleansing wipes and went to Pizzeria Rosalba for supper. We started with antipasto di mare and Dave had spaghetti alle vongole and I had spaghetti al regù. After our meal we went to the local bar to buy our train tickets to get to Monza. We had made sure there’s a direct train on Trenitalia but from here we need to use Trenord and that goes in to Milan which isn’t suitable.  We decided to leave it till the morning and went for gelato for dessert. The pastry shop was just closing but they kindly served us. Pistachio for Dave and hazelnut for me.  We walked back to our accommodation and checked the trains again. After that we both fell into bed and went to sleep.