April 18-22: Mezzegra, Italy
This was our first real long weekend of the year and we decided we wanted to spend it in Italy! Lake Como is a close spot - just over the border - and an easy drive from Zurich, so we made the call. I found us an Airbnb in a tiny town and we headed that way.
The place we had to stay was perfect. It had a view of the lake and a garden that Penny could play around in all she wanted and they had, kindly, made her a bed out of couch cushions. Unfortunately, Penny was a bit car sick and vomited as soon as we arrived. Not a great first impression.
Fortunately, it was all up from there. The location was gorgeous and the man who managed the property was kind enough to make us reservations at some local restaurants, all of which were great. The first night we went to the wine bar at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo - it was very fancy. But we had a lovely meal and a delicious bottle of wine.
The next day we explored the gardens at Villa Carlota in Tremezzino - they were really quite impressive - and had lunch at a delicious wine bar back a bit from the main street - Cantina Follie. Lunch was just a giant meat and cheese plate and a wine tasting. Basically, my ideal meal.
On Saturday we took the ferry over to Bellagio. We learned that we were supposed to have a muzzle on Penny, but you managed to talk her on to the boat both ways without one. The last guy was really mad about it and made us stand in a corner. Bellagio was very pretty, but also quite crowded - definitely very different from the small town we were staying in.
Mezzegra was on the Greenway - a series of paths and roads up above the main road that you can use to walk from town to town. We traversed it in both directions with Penny tagging along for some exercise. It afforded beautiful views.
When it was finally time to head home there was a backup in the Gothard Pass that was going to cause us a 2 hour delay. We decided to just take the long route back through Chur. It did not disappoint - the views of the mountains on that ride were really spectacular. And we all made it back home tired, but very happy.
