We left London Friday afternoon and arrived in Bellagio Friday evening. Bellagio isn't the easiest city to get to from London but our travel was pretty seamless. We flew from London to Milan, took a bus from the airport to the train station, took the train to Varenna and caught a ferry in Varenna to Bellagio. It took awhile but everything was on time and as an added bonus, our Airbnb host picked us up at the ferry port to take us to her flat - it would of been quite the walk had she not been there. We've got into a habit of choosing our Airbnb accommodations for the view...which we've found means it is usually a hike to get up to the flat.
The next morning we enjoyed coffee/tea on the patio and took in the view; we then headed into town for our cooking class. The cooking class was set-up that you met in town and visited a few of the local shops to pick-up ingredients for the meal, prepared the meal and finally enjoyed the meal. Our menu for the day was tomato bruschetta, eggplant ravioli and tiramisu. Our first stop was a local produce shop to pick-up eggplant, tomatoes and onion. Our second stop was the butcher to purchase salami and cheese. Our third and final stop was the baker to get fresh bread. After collecting all of ingredients, we were off to the kitchen to get started on our meal. We were in a class with five other individuals (all Australian) and each of us was assigned a task to prepare the bruschetta and the filling for the eggplant ravioli. Shane was tasked with chopping up the eggplant and I was tasked with slicing the tomatoes for the bruschetta.
When the filling for the ravioli was complete and the tomatoes for the bruschetta were roasting in the oven, we started on the tiramisu. We made the filling for the tiramisu as a group and then got to prepare our own individualized tiramisu choosing our own lady fingers-to-coffee ratios.
After the tiramisu was in the fridge, it was time to make the pasta! While the pasta set, we dined on cheese, salami and bruschetta on the terrace off the kitchen under some grape vines.
After enjoying our first course, it was time to make the eggplant ravioli. Our pasta was set and needed to be rolled and cut.
The pasta cooked quick and we were back out on the terrace enjoying our homemade creation with great company and great wine. Our chef was extremely friendly, and chatty, so it was great to get to know her and learn about Bellagio after our meal. We thought she was brilliant, so we tipped accordingly. The chef and her co-worker, the owner of the class, were so thankful for the tip that they invited us to a cocktail party the following evening.
After spending the day in the kitchen, we headed to Varenna, another village on the lake which was a 15 minute ferry from Bellagio. We strolled through the quaint village and enjoyed a glass of wine on the water before heading to our dinner reservation. Even though we were full from the cooking class, we still managed to enjoy more Italian cooking.
The next morning we were up early for our kayaking tour! Being out on the lake, while the lake was quiet, was awesome. We couldn't get enough of the views and our guide was really fun - near the end of the tour we stopped off in a small cove to celebrate my birthday with prosecco!
After our kayak tour, we headed back to the flat to wash-up before our unplanned afternoon of wine tasting. We had lunch at a wine bar and our waiter recommended that we do a tasting flight. After lunch, we strolled through the village, did some shopping and ended up at a small bar/wine cellar that was recommended by the chef at our cooking class. After doing some tasting there, it was time to meet our ride for dinner. We dined that evening at a restaurant that overlooked the Bellagio peninsula - it was fantastic.
Monday was our last day in Lake Como. I woke up that morning with a surprise video of family and friends wishing me a happy birthday put together by Emily & Holly - it was the best. While I didn't think the weekend could get any better, this was the icing on the cake.
We strolled through town and grabbed some pizza before catching the ferry for our journey home. We loved Lake Como, it is definitely on our list to return to again sometime!
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