Take incredible mountains, add a clear blue lake, sprinkle the coast with a few dozen charming cities, and cover the hillsides with gorgeous villas and you have the Lake Como region. At the exact centre of this is the beautiful city of Bellagio. For hundreds of years moneyed Italians from places further south like Milan have retreated to this area to escape the summer heat and to play. They built hundreds of palatial villas around the lake which are still used today.
We spent a number of days exploring the steep streets of Bellagio and cruised across the lake to visit neighbouring cities like Lenno and Varenna. One of the highlights for us was getting to know our Airbnb host Gilardoni Fausto who owns a small glass blowing operation where he creates Christmas ornaments. He showed us around his shop where we were allowed to watch his employees create the beautiful ornaments one step at a time. It was fascinating to watch the incredible attention to detail of each piece. This is one corner of Italy that we will never forget.
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