Cow Bells, Donkey Friends and Italian Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeese

ITALY!!  After the 'steins we drove to the mountains of Lake Como hoping for a George Clooney sighting.  We originally planned to stay on Lake Como but by the time we were ready to book a hotel, they were either all taken or too run-down.  We weren't sad for long because we found Il Tivano Bed and Breakfast in Zelbio, Italy.  It was everything we needed in the middle of our trip - comfort, relaxation and peace.

Introducing Il Tivano...

A cute Italian couple renovated this place and live in half of it with their kids and pups.  The other half is a perfectly designed B&B/organic berry/honey farm.

I took a million pictures of this place because I want my future home to be a mixture of this style and old things I find and repaint/refurbish.  It was a beautiful place to spend a few nights.

And - the best part - we were surrounded by cows!

If the owners of Il Tivano got the urge to give me their B&B, I would move here in a heartbeat.  We decided, on this very day as we were sipping red wine on this glorious porch, that we're moving back to Denver next summer and saving for a place like this in the Rocky Mountains.  We're always back and forth with where we want to be, but Il Tivano helped us make up our minds.

We braved the crazy mountain roads to visit Bellagio for the day.  It's just as cute and Italian as it gets.

I'm carrying a bag of desserts in this picture and they were all incredible.  One thing Italians do right is food.  Everything we had in Italy was amazing.

Side story: About 2 seconds after we got to Bellagio, a snarky American teenager looked at me and said, "Yeah, like that looks good," rolled her eyes and nudged her brother so he looked at my outfit...  I was wearing my favorite lace maxi skirt and a black tank top.  I don't know why that was so offensive, but I guess one year in Dubai has made me out of touch with what's cool to wear and what's not.  That's probably the rudest thing a stranger has ever said to me.

Didn't ruin my day, though!

Selfie #236

Oh, just another sunset in Italy...

This was our view from dinner the first night.  Restaurants in Zelbio operate mostly on reservations because they cook everything fresh that day.  We went to two different restaurants during our stay and both were incredible.  The owners were so warm and friendly and couldn't wait to feed us their best recipes and shots of limoncello.  They don't get many tourists up in the mountains, so they were as interested in us as we were in them.  The second night, we asked the waitress to give us whatever she'd feed her family for Sunday dinner.  She brought us two dishes, both completely smothered in cheese, and as I've told you before, cheese and my stomach are not friends.  But, when you're in Italy, how do you turn down cheese?  I decided I was gonna go for it so I could have the full Italian experience... and about 15 minutes later, I had the WORST stomach pains since I quit cheese.  After a night of cheeseystomach, Casey finally started to believe that I have some sort of dairy allergy.  It was totally worth it, though, because real Italian food is amazing.  

And finally, our dinner friend, cutest donkey ever.

Minus the too-skinny roads and crazy drivers, Italy was one of my favorite places on the trip.  Hopefully we'll make it back one day so we can stay a bit longer.