Part I
We began our Italy adventure by boarding our flight to Italy. Our travel took us on our Lufthansa flight through Frankfurt 
landing in Milano Linate airport, which is one of the two airports for Milan. We chose this one because it was convenient for Roma and I. Our flight was exactly as we expected from the United/Lufthansa Codeshare program. Flight was OK. Meals were “meh” though I did enjoy the beer.
Frankfurt is a pretty nice airport and we had about 4 hours for our layover. That was my fault. I am paranoid about missing connections. My theory is: If you miss your connection, you may have just messed up your entire vacation. So I stress and Roma makes the concession to allow me to manage the layover times to reduce this stress. I chose a 4 hour layover because I seem to remember a few years ago on another connection through Frankfurt, Roma and I had to collect our bags, go through customs and immigration, return our bags to the airline and then rush off to our next flight. I do not know why we had to do that; but this time, all we had to do is go through immigration which took maybe 10 minutes.
Day 1 – Milan
We arrived at approximately 17:10, picked up our luggage and made our way to locate the bus (every half hour) that would take us to Milano Centrale, the central train station for Milan. We had the option of Taxi as well but taking the bus for about 5 € each was a no-brainer for us since we were not in a hurry.
Our hotel was located within a 5-10 minute walk from the central station so once we left the bus, we had a short walk to our hotel, the Best Western Plus Felice Casati. The hotel was convenient to walk to and the English of the front desk personnel was very good. Our room was small but nice with the necessities we needed…a bed and bath with room for our bags. It also came with a nice small refrigerator and safe and had a water kettle in our room which was nice for Roma as she enjoys a nice cup of hot water every once in a while. Breakfast was included and had the nice standard spread of meats, cheeses, breads and coffee. It was not bad overall and we had small issues like the sink didn’t drain properly which the hotel repaired and the shower leaked.
Our plans for Milan included meeting one of Roma’s university friends and using Milan as a springboard to Lake Como. We met Roma’s friend and had a very pleasant evening of good food, good wine and good conversation.
Day 2 – Lake Como
On day 2, we had arranged for a day trip from Milan to Lake Como which included the transportation to and from the lake area and a boat cruise on the lake. Lake Como is a beautiful lake in northern Italy very near the Swiss border and is kind of shaped like an upside down Y. It has been a very popular retreat for the rich and famous since the roman times. According to Wikipedia, famous people who have or have had homes there include John Kerry, Madonna, George Clooney and Sylvester Stalone. In addition, many movies have used Lake Como as part of the story or as a location including Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, Casino Royale (2006), Julia and Julia, Ocean’s Twelve, and Man on Fire.
We made our way to the meeting point via the Milan underground. It was simple enough except we did not know we had to buy tickets from the magazine stand. We were expecting a ticket machine. This was actually the only city in Italy where we found this. Other cities had machines and actual ticket sales booths. The underground trip was uneventful.
The vendor was Zani Viagg and we met outside of the Milan Visitor Center which seemed to serve the company as a central meeting point. We discovered that morning that we had booked the Guided Tour in both English and Spanish. We were issued a little receiving device with headphones that allowed our guide to speak to us through a microphone without having to yell. The air conditioned coach ride was nice and uneventful while the guides gave us information and identified points of interest.
We arrived in the town of Como and were given some time to wander around the town with instructions to meet back at the port at a specific time. The cruise we were on seemed more like a local water taxi with 
multiple stops along the way to drop and pick up passengers. Our tour guide took the time to point out sights and famous people’s homes and sites. The boat ride took a leisurely two hours to reach the town of Bellagio and allowed a nice relaxing trip and the ability to sit back with a
glass of wine, beer or other available beverage and enjoy the beauty.
We can see why the wealthy love this location. The area is gorgeous. The water was beautiful and clean and the views were lush and green. At certain points, we could even see the Swiss Alps. Feel free to check out the
pictures we have uploaded to roamersholiday.com HERE.
The boat ride ended in Bellagio cute town where we grabbed a quick bite and walked around admiring the shops and beautiful lake views.
Bus trip back to Milan was early enough in the day to enjoy a bit of walking around before heading back to hotel for our evening rest in preparation of the next day’s trip to Venice on Day 3.
