Where the George Lives
Lake Como wouldn't be a household name if it weren't for an over-rated American named George Clooney, or as they say in Italian, George Clooney. We started our trip here after a logistical nightmare of a trip from NYC. After what seemed like a month after leaving the states, we arrived in Milan sans my bag. We filed a missing luggage claim, with zero percent confidence it would get resolved. On the plus side, we rented ourselves the sexiest car I've ever driven: A Smart Car! The size of my first apartment in SF, this thing was pretty outstanding. The best thing about driving a Smart Car in Europe is that nobody pulled up next to us laughing. After an hour of driving and navigating some truly narrow lake side roads, we made it finally to our AirBnB apartment. Early. Too early! We could not reach our host, so we back tracked to a small water side cafe for some pizza and wine until our host arrived. Our host, Laura, was great. She spoke very little (no) English, but we caught the drift for the most part. She was very thrilled to point out, that directly across the lake was Sir Georges Clooney's house. Not sure why she Knighted him, but she was cheesing big time saying his name, proud to have Sir George as a neighbor. Once settled in, we at long last let out a collective exhale. We made it.
The trip up to this point had been extremely stressful and except my missing bag, we made it to our first destination. All of the stress and anxiety leading up to this moment had arrived and it was important to take it in and realize why we were doing this. Both of us are so conditioned to go full speed and are both wired to fret about things we can and cannot control. We were now at the very beginning of this journey, but it felt like there was still so much to do. Our goal for this trip is to not live like Hedonists. As less pretentious as possible, we want to let this trip guide the "invisible hand" of our entrepreneurial spirit.
Lake Como really is a beautiful place. Our apartment a a great balcony and view of the lake and the warm weather allowed us to sleep with the patio doors open. Late night thunder storms woke us the first couple of nights. It was amazing. The next day, still bag less, we drove our little hot rod over to George's side of the lake. There is a night and day difference between the two sides, like the East and Stanford sides of Palo Alto. The plan was to go to a beach, but we quickly learned that the word "beach" to these lake dwellers, does not mean beach. Astro turf, crappy lawn chairs and a fence at the water line is considered a beach. Well, to be fair they call it a "Lido", but still. We attempted to go to one of these Lido's, but it seemed like it sucked and after a terse exchange with some dragon lady gate keeper, we peaced out back to the other side of the lake with the rest of the regular folk.
My bag still hadn't shown up and after dozens of useless conversations with American and British Airlines, we figured it would be best to drive to the airport. Not the one we flew into mind you. Yeah, it was all sorts of f'd up. The details aren't important, but it was there. I was very, very happy and it was great to be reunited again, especially after not knowing if it was even at that airport. Because our first two days a Como seemed unfulfilled, we made the decision to stay an extra two days, so we Tetris'd ourselves back into our go cart and headed back to Como to stay at the picturesque town of Bellagio.
Bellagio was great. It is right on the lake at the tip of a spit of land and our hotel had a great view over looking the water. We spent the day walking around, which wasn't much because the town was so small and called it an early night. I was pleasantly surprised to find an Arnold movie on TV in English! Not like you need English to figure out what's going on in an Arnold movie or anything, but still, it was a nice treat. The next day was interesting. A thunder storm like I had never seen, raged over the lake for most of the day. It was so cool and our view allowed us to see the tempest in all its beauty. Like good Americans, we ran out to get sandwich stuff and wine to protect us from the scary weather. Holed up in our room drinking wine and eating salami, we watched the Olympics and took care of some admin stuff. It was actually a really fun time and it was the first time we felt like we had an excuse to do nothing and just chill.
We rose early the next day to avoid any traffic and made our way back to the rental car company. It was sad to say goodbye to our little car, but it went to a better place. We were off to Florence, my (so far) most favorite place in the world.
FINAL THOUGHTS: We did a lot in a short amount of time to get to this point. Before now, these destination were just dots on a calendar, far off in the future. We have wanted this for so long and now it is here, but it feels as if something is off. I think it hasn't settled in yet. I think we are on this crazy journey, but it had always been, "when we go to..." or "we have to see..."; we have not let ourselves sink into the moment. As I wrote above, we are conditioned to finding value and self worth in doing something, anything and it is alarmingly difficult to turn "it" off. We need to learn to let go and allow the places we visit inspire us, even in the most minute of manners. We have to stay focused on our goal and why we are doing this, but also not be thinking 10 steps ahead. Just go with it, man. Until then, take care of yourself and each other.
BUSINESS PLAN PROGRESS: Wrote my name on the business plan template :/
