Our second European Trip was spent in Italy for 3 weeks! We flew into Milan from Paris, France (over 10 hours flight). We used Rick Steves' guidebooks again (we were very pleased with our London-Paris vacation that we decided Rick Steves is the one to use).

Our arrival into Varenna, Lake Como was a rather interesting moment. Rick Steves warned us that: 1) the trains don't stop very long (about a minute at each stop) in Lake Como, 2) the trains don't make announcements, and 3) since the trains are often longer than the train stations, there may be times when we exit, we're not even on the platform. When the train started slowing down into Varenna, Mark made a mad dash towards the exits. For some reason, he thought that the trains were starting up again and frantically tried to open the doors. Luckily the conductor noticed his dilemma and told him to calm down and wait for the train to stop. It wasn't until we got into our hotel that Mark told me he was actually prepared to jump out of the train and expected me to do the same!

After checking into our hotel, we did Rick Steves' Hello Varenna Walk, taking us to Piazza San Giorgio. Topping the square are four churches, with the main church built in the 14th century. For dinner, we had our first Italian pizza at Victoria Grill.

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See more pics of our Italy Vacation:

Day 1 - Lake Como: Varenna, Menaggio, Bellagio, and Cadenabbia
Day 2 - Varenna, and Bellagio
Day 3 - Venezia (Venice)
Day 4 - Venezia
Day 5 - Venezia
Day 6 - Venezia
Day 7 - Cinque Terre: Vernazza and Monterosso
Day 8 - Cinque Terre: Corniglia, Manorola, and Riomaggiore
Day 9 - Pisa and Firenze (Florence)
Day 10 - Firenze
Day 11 - Firenze
Day 12 - Firenze and Siena
Day 13 - Siena and San Gimignano
Day 14 - Siena
Day 15 - Sorrento
Day 16 - Sorrento, Amalfi, and Ravello
Day 17 - Sorrento, Ercolano (Herculaneum) and Napoli (Naples)
Day 18 - Sorrento and Pompeii
Day 19 - Roma (Rome)
Day 20 - Roma
Day 21 - Roma and the Vatican City
Day 22 - Roma - Our last day in Italy :(

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