Lecco, Italy and Luzern, Switzerland

Hooray! We got an early afternoon departure from Vernazza for our drive to Lecco, which is just north of Milan. It's only several hours drive, so we guaranteed ourselves a daylight arrival barring a breakdown or massive traffic jam. Luckily, neither occurred. And, there were no surprises, as the TomTom took us right to our hotel. We were really unenthusiastic to leave Vernazza - - A. Because we loved it so and B. Because Lecco was our last stay in Italy. Before we left Vernazza, we were told that George Clooney has a place in Lecco, so Radhika had a momentary heart flutter. His image was in more then a few shops and stores there. When we arrived in Lecco it was again easy to find our hotel. It's located on a river that cuts through and around the city, so the location is very nice. The temperature was warm enough, but there was a thick fog everywhere, and it wasn't a fog that enhanced the atmosphere. We walked the very short distance to the center of it all in Lecco, grabbing a couple of slices and gelato. Now, it has been mentioned to me that my posts mention us eating a lot of pizza but nothing else. Believe me, we ate much more then pizza. The food in northern Italy was delicious! But during the day when we were out and about, it was easy to grab a slice or 2 of pizza and keep going until dinner time. I am happy and satisfied with some great slices and a couple of scoops of gelato (coconut and tropical fruit became my favorite!). The "serious" meals were all good that I can think of with the exception of one dinner in Vernazza that was a little disappointing. Our dinner at Monica's restaurant was VERY delicious and I was dreaming about it on my taste buds the rest of that night! Anyway, we had a nice dinner out in a square that night in Lecco before going to sleep in our very nice, comfortable room at the NH on the river. We woke up the next morning, had breakfast in the hotel, and went walking around a little so I could take some pictures as the fog was gone (but coming back as the morning progressed). We left in the early afternoon so we could make Luzern before nightfall. Right before we left Italy, I was jonesing for one more tasty, sweet, gelato experience. As luck would have it at a stop light, there was a gelato shop on the left hand side. We pulled to the right and parked in front of a closed store, walking over to the store and I gazed into the freezer case to check the flavors. I had my coconut/tropical fruit double cone and Radhika had a chocolate/cappuccino. Man I made that last as long as I could. We sat outside on a bench on the sidewalk in front of the shop next to a bus stop. It was the perfect ending to our Italy adventure (maybe a cone to go would've been REALLY perfect!), and we were back on our way after the last sweet, chilly morsel was savored.

And we did. The drive from Lecco was several hours. The terrain in Switzerland was gorgeous and as we neared and then drove around Lake Luzern, I knew we were going to have a nice time there for our 2 night stay. We arrived without a hitch at our chalet (la-dee-da) and was shown to our room. We were actually staying outside of Luzern in a sleepy town several train stops north. It was a great location! The views of the lake were beautiful, the town sleepy, clean, and tidy, and the people friendly. We had an indoor heated pool at our disposal as well as a sauna, which we used both nights (Radhika's first time in a sauna! She actually asked if people really "sit in these things on purpose and sweat like this?". I said "Hell yeah".) I was loving the intense heat after months of Amsterdam weather! And we had everything to ourselves as the chalet wasn't very full. There were quite a few people in the restaurant for breakfast and dinner, however. The breakfast buffet was okay, but nothing really special. However, the meals we had at dinner were very good!! And this place had some unique rooms for guests. The best one had a completely restored and modified Rolls Royce that the guest slept in. Next to it was a hot tub. Others had different themes and layouts. There was even a large gondola over the indoor swimming pool that was outfitted with a bed that could accommodate 2 guests! I believe you can see them on their web page. Let me know if you are curious and I'll find it. We walked around the small town one day, and went into Luzern the next. It's a nice city to visit, with plenty to see and do. We even did some shopping there which I usually don't like to bother with. But there were some surprisingly good deals so we came back to the hotel with a few shopping bags! We looked for a place to eat in Luzern before we left, but nothing grabbed us enough to try. We wanted to eat somewhere different then the chalet, but the food was so good we didn't really mind eating there again. Dinner and another trip to the pool and our second night came to a close. The next morning we would head back to Amsterdam which would take us about 8 hours according to Yahoo and TomTom. We expected another hour or two on top of that because of the horrible experience of our drive south from Amsterdam to Munich almost 3 weeks earlier. But all of the construction and delays must be on the southbound roads, because we zipped home with very few traffic hiccups. I even got some 170kph time on the autobahn, which is about 100mph. Of course the Mercedes, BMW's, and Porche's were still flying by our Ford. But it felt good and the car handled safely at that speed. We pulled in and unloaded in front of the apartment, and I found our usual parking spot on P.C. Hoofstraat around the corner. We were back, but still part of us was back in one of our vacation destinations.