Our first Christmas away from home

December 20 – 30, 2006

Our search for our first ever white Christmas started with difficulty due to the mild European winter we have been experiencing, thanks to global warming. In hindsight we should have gone home to Melbourne if we wanted snow! Crazy times.

But we found a beautiful corner of the world next to Lake Como in the Italian Alps, right near the Swiss border.

We flew into the cosmopolitan/industrial city of Milan where we did a bit of Christmas shopping. We found some cool, furry, Italian leather boots for Fi and a silk bow tie for Davo from the same shop who tailors suits for James Bond, Jack Nicholson, Bill Clinton, Sharon Stone among many others.

Then to Bellagio, a small town at the pearl of Lake Como. We spent a week here eating, drinking and relaxing.

We stocked up on plenty of gourmet Italian food and wine at the many markets in the lakeside towns including salami, cheese, bread, prosciutto, olive oil, dried fruit, turkey, olives, champagne and red wine. We also found many authentic Italian Christmas presents for each other and for family at home in Australia to help us remember our special Christmas.

I’ll explain our Christmas day in brief…

First thing, wake up and Davo cooked pancakes with strawberries and icecream. We both peered out our window to catch a view of the awesome sunny weather and the snow capped Alps in the background. Then we opened our presents in our santa sacks (plain white pillow cases) and afterwards Fi made strawberry champagne cocktails.

We don our best clothes and Santa hats and down to the lakeside we ventured. We sat there for hours with our picnic of gourmet food and wine, enjoying the view of the still and clear lake and the snow and mountains, as well as the company of cheery locals walking past and envying our great idea!

When it grew colder it was back to our warm abode where we filled the last space in our tummies with a traditional Italian pudding and home made hard sauce.

As much as we enjoyed our unique Christmas in an exotic location, it drove home how much we miss home in Australia.