Bellagio, Italy 9/12/00

The road to Bellagio

Billy and Cliff putting up with another one of Michelle's photo ops - they are so cute!

this town, bellaggio is beautiful. totally italian. we stayed at a five star hotel nestled up against the mountain but right on the lake. we ate some awesome food and took in plenty of shopping. the lake is enormous, with other towns and cities bordering the entire lake. very romantic in the evening with all the distant city lights around the lake.

Milan, 9/13/00 ...then home 9/14/00,

milan was a mecca for shoppers. i'm not a big shopper myself, but i must say i enjoy the european shops. fortunately we didn't drive into the city. we took a cable car, very similar to the trolley in san fransisco only they have dozens of these things running rails all over the city. the traffic was unbelievable! people are zipping in and out of buses, trolleys, taxis and every other form of mass transit you can imagine. it is a tangled web of overhead cables, rails, street lights and other unfamiliar traffic obstacles. it's amazing all the scooters that inhabit the streets in the city. they fly all over the roads, between cars, buses and people. none of the cars here are bigger than a vw golf. it seems the quickest way to get around is the scooters. we shopped for about four hours. michelle got a sweet, heavy chrome expresso machine (la Pavoni), and both of us bought some very nice italian luggage to carry all our additional stuff home with us! speaking of home, tomorrow's the day. we head back to boulder. the trip was absolutely fantastic! we put on almost 3500 km on the car, over 2000 miles. it was great, the autobahn, the winding mountain roads, the country-side and cities were all exhilirating. i can't wait to come back some day. cliff was an awesome friend, well traveled with plenty of stories along the way, and michelle is wonderful friend and companion that i hope to share these lasting memories with. i can't really say that i'm ready to go back home like i thought i might be before i left boulder. europe is huge! lots to see and take in. although there is nothing i would want to do different, other than ride the bobsled, i must say the czech-republic, namely prague and karlovy vary were the most beautiful and unique. ciao.., billy, michelle and cliff!

.Duomo in Milan