Today was a really full day. We arrived at our hotel and home for a few days, The Grand Hotel Imperiale Resory & Spa in Moltrasio, Italy.

https://guide.michelin.com/en/hotels-stays/moltrasio/grand-hotel-imperiale-resort-spa-9912

We arrived at the hotel yesterday late afternoon in the pouring rain, so we hadn’t seen much of the property and facilities. This morning, after suffering from jet lag with little or no sleep, (No amount of Melatonin or anything helps me with sleeping the first night of our trip) we had an early wake up, to begin a day with lots of touring. But before the touring could begin, the hotel staff served all of their guests a spectacular, fresh and tasty breakfast, that is not to believed. We also had more of a chance to walk around the hotel property (just a few feet from Lake Como) and were quite surprised how beautiful the hotel grounds and surroundings are. Below are some links from pics taken right outside of our window and from the Moltrasio dock (in front of the hotel property) & afternoon boat ride from Como. (Warning these links will \240expire on June 12, 2023

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Pictures below are pics from the \240highlights from our walking tour and \240funicular ride (for those of you who aren’t familiar, a funicular is like a cable car that travels on tracks up the side of a mountain) \240and the beautiful town of Como. You will notice the pics start as foggy and grey skies and changed to sunny skies throughout the day. The weather was sporadic and dodgy today but after visiting the town I understand why George Clooney loves this area so much. It is picture-book, charming. One tip I wanted to suggest is that if you find yourself visiting this region and taking the funicular ride, try to navigate to stand in the very back of the funicular going up or the very front of the first car going down. That is where you will get the most spectacular views and get the best pics and videos. See the videos and pics we took in the links below.

Included below is a second link with a picture from our hotel suite window, two hours later when we experienced a thunderstorm & lots of rain. Very different from the picture taken from our hotel window just a couple of hours before and of course it is totally different from how we started our morning with dense fog. The weather at this time of year in Como and Moltrasio is very changeable so appropriate, warm, waterproof clothing and an umbrella are a must for comfortable touring; not to mention your best walking shoes or boots should be required. The ancient cobble stone streets in the the older areas of the city center would definitely wreak havoc on legs and ankles. In my opinion, comfort is key when you end up walking thousands of steps per day when touring.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0d7uUlzpc88NiQjtbn0Bz9T0w

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0d7WojcvtPNBjsUY7sxywwqag

This is my first post for our Viking trip. Chris and I flew out of JFK airport on May 11th with a stop in Munich, Germany and then departed Munich for our second flight to Milan for the beginning of our trip. After arriving in Milan we were transported to the beautiful Lake Como region. But prior to writing about our visit to Lake Como I wanted to give a little background on this special Viking cruise experience. The map below showcases the unique cruise portion of our trip which will begin on May 15th through May 22nd. This itinerary is a river cruise and ocean cruise itinerary combination. We have cruised both of these itineraries separately in the past but couldn’t resist the thrill of being able to experience the Rhine River cruise from Basel to Amsterdam and then be able to experience and travel on the Jupiter from Amsterdam to Bergen, May 22nd through May 29th. Determined to pack in as much fun and maximum experiences as possible (due to the lack of travel during the past couple of years due to the Pandemic) Chris and I also included the post excursion experience in Reykjavik, Iceland. So that is our planned cruise and land itinerary. The sad part of leaving home for nearly 21 days is leaving our precious pooch, Riley Rose (pictured below). We are only able to take this lengthy trip thanks to RR’s wonderful helpers: Dan & Denise. Special shout out to them for watching our girl and letting us kick up our heels a bit in Europe. It’s been a long time since we have been able to travel on a big trip and we are grateful to get away and this experience.

Of course we will miss seeing our family, also. A big shout out and lots of love to our grandchildren, Sophia, Connor & Emilia and Mommy, Katrina & Daddy, Michael.

Today was our last day at the beautiful Grand Hotel Imperiale. Because we were traveling I had completely forgotten because we were traveling that it was Mother’s Day. My amazing hubby had not forgotten and gave me a card that he bought all the way from home. \240We really enjoyed our stay at this historic hI would highly recommend it for the epic breakfast experience they serve each morning. We didn’t spend a lot of time at the hotel today after another early get up at 7am and travel to our 2 hour (each way) boat tour to Bellagio, Italy. We had a very educated tour guide yesterday and today and she filled us in on all of interesting history of the many gorgeous villas we passed on the Lake Como Lakefront. We also got a nice bird’s eye view of George Clooney and his family’s home. He has quite the compound. I