There was a conversation last night that we had a lot of moving pieces in today’s plan, and that if everything went according to plan, today’s blog post would be the best ever. Ironically, if things didn’t go according to plan, today’s blog post would be the best ever. So hold on, a bar has been set. And today, my friends, was comedic.

So the plan, in it’s most simple form, was to leave Milan by train, spend time on Lake Como – specifically Bellano exploring Orrido di Bellano – and returning home to Milan through Como.

Last night we realized that it would be more efficient to take the train to Bellona directly from Milan. We found tickets for under €100 for all 7 of us on a nonstop from Milan which would take about an hour leaving at 9:20 am. We made the decision to scrap our originally purchased tickets direct to Como at 9:05 am and save ourselves the hours on a ferry up to Bellona. Brilliant. That would require us being out of our apartment at 8:30 am by taxi to the train station. No problem.

At 8:15 taxis were ordered using Europes latest and greatest cab hailing app, “Free Now.” No one was answering. Sunday morning, no traffic, no big rush to get places. No answers. Finally my family had someone accept, Tim didn’t. We went out to meet the cab and he started protesting that he couldn’t take everyone. No kidding, Tim was literally bigger than the vehicle. I asked him to call another cab, no luck. So we went and told Tim we’d meet him there. As we arrived at the station 10 minutes later, roughly 8:50, we were starting to stress about schedule and whether Tim would make it. We ran inside to grab breakfast supplies and check the boards. Tim confirm he was in a cab at the same time I saw that our 9:20 train to Bellona was cancelled.

Sidebar: apparently, but unknown to us, the Trenitalia division Trennord was having a significant labor dispute with their union and the union chose today to strike shutting down all northern regional rail lines and trains. Including our train going to Bellona.

Crap. Fortunately I had grabbed the 9:05am original tickets to Como because our return was attached. We began hoping that Tim’s cab would arrive in time to sprint to the platform and catch that train as it was on mainline Trenitalia and unaffected by the strike.

Tim’s cab swung into the station on two wheels at 9:00am and we had already given up. We started having a discussion about tickets and refunds when, a couple minutes late, Chloe said, “hey, the 9:05 still shows as boarding…” We took off for the platform only to watch it pull away without us.

Next stop was the Trenitalia service booth where the man was exceptionally unhelpful and told us just to board the 10:10 am and “work out the tickets with the conductor.” Not wanting to leave anything to chance, we felt it best to just buy tickets and seek a credit later.

Funny part is that there were multiple trains at 10:10am and he never gave a number. We worked out that the the 10:10am to Basel, Switzerland was the one and bought tickets. Okay. Sigh of relief. Now for breakfast. We grabbed food and headed for our train.

European rail travel is unique. You get a train number and a seat number. But equally important is the carriage number so you know which car houses your seats. Those are typically marked on digital boards mounted on the columns on the platform. We got to the platform before these updated apparently and walked all the way to the end of the train before realizing we had to walk all the way back. We laughed, because we sure had our share of issues today. We had no idea what was in store.

As we approached our seats there were bags in the two reverse facing seats and a young German couple making out in the other two. We sat in different seats figuring the train wouldn’t be full, partially not to be rude but also because Tim and Michelle didn’t want to interrupt. Sure enough, a few.minutes later, a family boarded and needed our seats. So I told the lovebirds they had to move. They contemplated their actual seats facing each other with a table in between. But decided that wasn’t what they really wanted so they stole seats elsewhere. Whatever, all was good. And again, we laughed.

With a high speed rail schedule showing roughly 50 minutes from Milan to Como, including one stop we were confident we’d make up some ground. As we were pulling away from the station the conductor made and announcement of our stops, and Como wasnt mentioned. Tim and I both heard it and looked at each other. Michelle didn’t, but our laughter gave it away. We might be on the wrong train. I forgot to mention that no one checks your tickets until after departure. Making that mistake entirely possible. The funniest part in my mind was that I had interrupted young love potentially in error.

Long story short, after some rapid internet work, we were certain it was the right train and that we were in schedule for an on time arrival at Como San Giovanni. Only, the landscape wasn’t changing. There were no mountains. No signs of water. Only bombed out industrial buildings and run down houses. Hardly the land of the rich. Then Michelle said it, “are you sure that’s the right Como station?” I knew of at least one or two others, so I panicked not so silently.

Turns out I was right and she was just trying to wind me up. Mission accomplished. And again we had a good laugh.

We arrived in Como and realized we still couldn’t see the water. Thanks to our airbnb host cancelling their wifi and not telling us, everyone had exceeded their high speed data allotment and cell phones were hardly functional. What’s that Verizon? If I reply yes to your text I can get an additional 0.5gb? I can hear you now, replied. That saved us from making a bad decision which would have meant a €15 cab fare, times two because we are traveling in a pack.

We walked down to the ferry terminal, stopping at an ATM on the way. Part of our revised plan, since we couldnt take the train to Bellona was to ferry to Bellagio, which is about the center of Lake Como’s trefoil, and potentially take a private water taxi the rest of the way. We expected that to be a cash only transaction.

We arrived at the ferry terminal around 11:30 and hopped into the back of a very long line. Tim ran to the front to make sure it was something we needed. Turns out it was ferry tickets, so yes. Things were looking up!

As we got to the front of line after 15 minutes and had finally made sense of the timetable written by disgruntled Italian engineers, we had a plan. We purchased round trip tickets from Como to Bellagio which would get us into Bellagio around 2pm. Then we could hop a water taxi for theblast bit, hike to the waterfall, get back to Bellagio in time for dinner and wine before heading back to Como for the train. Perfect.

We boarded the ferry and got choice seats up on the open air deck, but under the cover so no direct sun. Couldn’t have been more perfect. The views from the water were without compare. Huge mountains and beautiful water, met in the middle with picturesque homes and buildings. If I ever run away and hide, there’s a reasonable chance I’m hiding along Lake Como.While we were admiring the clean air and the beauty of our surroundings, we had a brilliant idea that would likely save us time and money: the ferry we were on was ending its journey in Bellano, we could just forget to get off in Bellagio, go to Bellano, and buy a return ticket from Bellano to Bellagio, then use our original return ticket to Como. Perfect. That would save us the potential hundreds of euros for a private boat. We were on a roll and getting good at this.

We didn’t account for the three stops back and forth across the lake between Belaggio and Bellano which added roughly an hour. Oh well. Still okay.We arrived in Bellano around 3pm. Quiet little town with a small square right on the water and a few little places with food and gelato. There were a number of people on street bikes and matching leathers likely on day trips up through the mountains from Milan. Looked like fun.We headed immediately to Orrida di Bellano winding through the narrow streets before arriving at a stone staircase. At the top of the stone staircase, we found a ticket booth and bar. Of course! Because we knew we were a little crunched for time and had to be back on the ferry at 4:30pm we went right in.

Orrida di Bellano is a effectively a slot cut through the mountain with a ridiculous waterfall roaring through. The noise is unbelieveable thanks to the tight space and rock walls. There are platforms anchored in the walls all the way through making it easier to see the falls and chasm from every angle.The whole walk through took about 45 minutes and we headed back down toward the ferry. Only this time we trusted our sense of direction and cut our walk time in half. Clearly the routing had been designed to get you in front of as many little local shops as possible.The kids got gelato and we waited to board.Once on our way it became apparent that we were going to be in trouble getting back. The return tickets we had weren’t labeled with a time and upon inquiring we learned that we most likely wouldn’t make it back in time for our train to Milan. It was only a half mile from the dock to the train station and not all of us were interested in the run uphill.

We bought direct tickets back on an “express boat” scheduled to leave at 6:20pm. It was currently 4:45pm, and we were starving. Tim found a restaurant in the Hotel Metropole Bellagio with room for us for a meal, while sitting on a balcony overlooking the lake. We sat at 5 and I started panicking. I didn’t see, after how everything had gone today, that we were going to make the 6:20 ferry, which was the last one capable of getting us back for our train, if we had an even remotely normal Italian meal. Service is long and slow by design, and I didn’t want to be stuck buying two more sets of tickets bevause we were late. I was thinking getting a snack might be best at the restaurant and then getting take out for the ride made the most sense. The servers assured us we’d be okay, and I was ridiculed by my traveling partners for being, overly nervous. So I decided to trust them. They still made fun of me and we were done with a great meal and bottle of wine before 6. I was wrong, they were right. By the way, the pizza was out of this world…Once we got to the pier for the ferry at about 6:10 there was a huge line. I was hoping to get an open air seat so Michelle and Chloe could potentially dodge some motion sickness, so I was a little concerned by how many people were ahead of us. But then we kept waiting. And waiting.Finally, at 6:40, the boat arrived. Our first boat took 2 hours to make the Como to Bellagio run. We had a train to catch at 8:10 and we were all starting to get nervous. We had even been talking about hotels in Belaggio and early morning boats and trains as contingencies. We were all skeptical about actually making it. And then it got worse.

The boat was odd looking and didn’t have any outdoor seating. Not good signs. As we were getting on with the Obresnahans, we were sent downstairs to in an area that windows right along the water line. And it was hot. We all sat in what looked like coach airplane seats. All weird. When we started moving, it all made sense.It was a hydroplane. We started moving fairly quickly and then the boat rose up out of the water like we were flying. And we were. We were tearing across the lake at a crazy speed for a boat that size. We made a couple stops and then repeated the take off maneuver each time. Still we were concerned about making the train.

Apparently we were worried for no reason. We arrived back in Como at 7:25 – less than an hour and less than half the time of the original trip.

We walked up the hill to the train station, waited a few minutes, and boarded for Milan.

It was a very long day and we’re all wiped out. Aside from the hundreds of euros spent on replacement tickets, even though some will be refunded, and the anxiety of the schedules, we had a very memorable day. Not saying we’d want to do it again, but there are worse experiences with worse people. These are the reasons it’s fun to travel with people that fit you, problem solving and rebounding make the trips what they are.

Today was epic.

And just for reference: