Caio to Italy

We hate to leave the beautiful Lake Como area.  We had the most incredible apartment and awesome view.  The lake and mountains couldn't be beat.

Time for one last dinner by Matteo at the Ca Mia.  Friday night was fish night and we had great variety, including cuttle fish with black ink.  The main dish was corvina, Tom thought it was sea bass--delicious.  But all good things must come to an end and Italy is no exception.  We packed up and took our hairpin turns down the mountain one last time. That road was always a challenge, you never knew who or what you might meet.  Tom was a champ! Chamonix  here we come.  We went through lots of tunnels on this trip including the seven mile long Mont Blanc tunnel where the toll was 50€.

We entered the tunnel in Italy and came out in France.  Chamonix is a mountain village that sits in the valley in the shadow of Mont Blanc (15,772 ft high).   It was the home of the first Winter Olympics in 1924.  It's a ski resort town, but it's the low season, so it's not over crowded, which is nice.  The snow covered mountains are majestic.  We could see Mont Blanc from the balcony of our hotel room.

It was Tom's birthday, so we celebrated with fondue.

The weather was perfect, so we could sit outside and enjoy our lunch.

We had a nice time watching the hang gliders as we ate.

In the afternoon, we walked around the village checking out what Chamonix had to offer.

We thought we might try out the casino, but they wanted to see our passports and we had left them in the hotel.  That kept us from losing anything.

Sunday morning we woke up to rain.  The hotel had given us train passes to Vallorcine, a small village about 20 minutes north of Chamonix.  We missed the first train, so that gave us an opportunity for a cappachino.  A perfect treat for a cold, rainy day.  That also gave us time for a little shopping and a nice lunch.  French onion soup hit the spot.  Back to the train and on to Vallorcine.

The train only went to the little town of Argentiere and from there we got on a bus to Vallorcine.

It was a cute little village, but totally closed down, because it's a ski town and it's between the summer hiking season and the winter sports season.  We walked around a bit and waited for the bus to come back and pick us up.

Back on the bus, back on the train, back to Chamonix. We will have fond memories of this beautiful village.