The City by the Sea

After promptly getting ready in the morning, I headed down for an authentic Swiss breakfast.

The breakfast basically consisted of the basic items you would generally find in the morning, but the one the one thing I should mention is I did try out the famous Swiss Cheese.

While I'm no master in the art of cheese, it did taste rather distinguishable but quite thick and chewy.

After quickly scribbling a message on two postcards and sending them off (which I've since been informed have successfully reached their destinations), I grabbed a seat on the bus just in time.

Our ride was going to consist of descending from the Swiss mountains back to Italy, where we would spend the afternoon at Como Lake.

Before making our descent, we stopped by a very peaceful lake and grabbed some photos for the good ole' photo album.

Stupidly, I hopped off the bus without a jacket and found myself freezing to death, yet again.

Here's some footage of the Swiss Alps at the crack of dawn:

Swiss Lake

After turning my nose into an icicle, I climbed back on the bus to grab some warmth.

Next, our descent from the Alps.

As we spiraled down, the surrounding view was breathtaking.

I'm not lying, look for yourself:

The amount of sharp turns in this area was insane. Good luck going 70mph here.

Here's some footage I captured along the way:

Swiss Alps

While we undergoing our daunting descent, I turned to see one my classmates totally knocked out:

Hilarious!

As we reached ground level, I waved the Swiss Alps along with Switzerland, adieu.

Pushing forward, we soon arrived at the Italian border and re-entered Italy.















Our guide humorously commented on how he could tell we were in Italy. He referred to the worn houses and neglected roadways as a blatant sign.

We encountered this phenomenal waterfall that looked like it had come straight out of THE LORD OF THE RINGS:

Waterfall

We also drove past...COWS!!!

Mooohhh......

After a little more traveling, we soon set our own sights on the surroundings of Como Lake.

Como Lake is a classical area which is surrounded by three parts of the city, Como. Each part is situated in a different area which is only available by traveling on Como Lake.

The area has quite a reputation with numerous celebrities owning houses on Como Lake along with a variety of films and music videos having been filmed on location here.

We were going to send time on all three parts. Our bus stopped by the first part of Como, where we all got off. There was going to be a ferry to take to us the other two, more populated areas of Como.

While we waited, we took a few shots.

As the ferry docked in, I noticed quite a few motorcyclists on board. I was informed by our guide that Como Lake is home to a famous Italian motorcycle manufacturer, hence the reason for the strong surge of bikers.

Here's some live-action of the bikers as they rode out:

Bikers

We soon hopped onto the ferry and began our little boat ride to the other side of Lake Como.

The view was quite pleasant.

Here's a panoramic view I got of Como Lake:

Como Lake

We coasted past a family of ducks pushing against the current:

They were winning too!

As we docked into the second part of Como, our guide informed us of the variety of activates available on this side of the lake.

He mentioned that a very beautiful garden was located just 5 minutes away. With about an hour to spare before our departure to the third part of the city, we decided that a nice stroll through the gardens of Lake Como would a very pleasant and leisurely experience.

So, we hiked forth:

And soon arrived to:

It translates to, The Garden of the Melzi House. See how amazing my Italian was just there!?!?!

The garden turned out to be quite gorgeous with some striking moments.

Garden Vista

There were authentic bamboo trees planted within:

There were also a few sculptures scattered throughout the garden:

I also ran into some Japanese maple trees along the way:

 And this impressive grotto:

After our stroll through the garden, the time arrived to hop back onto the ferry once more and travel to the third and final side of Como Lake.

This side housed more of the residential areas and was much quieter than the other two parts.

 

I really loved the atmosphere at Como. It was just extraordinary see the city cradled in between such sprawling mountains, yet wrapped around a calm and classical lake.

After a break for lunch on the more peaceful side of Como, we soon met up with our buses and began the journey back to Florence.

On the way back I encountered some worthwhile snapshots, including the first Blockbuster I'd seen in Italy:

I also saw some eccentric pop art on the walls:

And finally one of the many comedic posters scattered throughout Italy for Serie A and Sky TV:

After about a four hour drive south, we arrived back in Florence at about 9pm.

The excursion out to Switzerland was just plain wicked and the time spent at Como Lake ended up being a splendid companion piece. It showed that Europe isn't all glitz and glamour but also naturally enthralling.

Quite a productive weekend, wouldn't you say?

Switzerland!

My iPhone alarm began disturbing my sleep at 3am. It always has to be early, why?

The bus was going to leaving from Florence at a shockingly early 4:30am, and I needed to get ready and journey to the meeting point ASAP. Considering that live about a million miles away from the school, I had to leave even earlier.

As I arrived at the Piazza Independente, I was greeted by other students also waiting for the arrival of the buses. We ended having about 60 students in total attending.

The two buses soon arrived and we all quickly grabbed a seat and crashed out for the next few hours.

The buses were unbelievably uncomfortable and rigid. I'd have to get used to it, oh well....

We were awoken by our travel guide/teacher who announced that we would be making a pit stop for about 20 minutes.

Sluggishly, I hopped off to stretch my legs a bit and take in some of the fresh air.















After our short hiatus, we returned to our journey.

As we traveled up north, the scenery slowly began to change drastically. More natural and fresh landscapes began to blossom.















It was quite nice to see small cottages and villages sprinkled throughout the lush countryside. It came off very much like a fable.















Here's some footage I shot as we traveled through:

Italian Countryside

We soon arrived to the northern town of Tirano, where we would board the world famous Bernina Express.

The Bernina Express is a celebrated train ride that begins in northern Italy, transverses through the Swiss Alps, and ends in the classical resort of St. Moritz, located in Switzerland.

The ride is supposedly an amazing experience, traveling over amazing vistas and jaw-dropping landscapes.

We spent a small amount of time in Tirano:

Soon the time arrived to board the Bernina Express:

The architecture of the train itself reminded me of the classical locomotives, very authentic.

The Express was going to depart from Tirano and arrive at St. Moritz, located deep in the Swiss Alps. Here's a visual shot to understand the scale of things:



















We started off in the lush, splendid ground level of the Italian side of the Swiss Alps:

Utterly gorgeous.

It's was like traveling through a forgotten world, fantastical world. Technology was nowhere to be seen and everything seemed fairytale like.

The amazing thing about the journey was that you conjure up a variety of fantastical scenarios. You could imagine yourself traveling on the Hogwarts Express from Harry Potter or envision yourself venturing on the exhilarating train level from Uncharted 2. Actually talking about Uncharted, the music I listened to for the duration of the journey was the Trine and Uncharted 2 Soundtrack. Quite immersive!

We passed by a phenomenal waterfall nicely crested into the Alps:

Waterfall

We also stopped by a beautiful, peaceful, and actually BLUE lake:

Lake

As we ascended, things soon began to change.

The temperature began to drop and the scenery although jaw-dropping, was extremely high and quite daunting.

Swiss Alps 1

Swiss Alps 2

Swiss Alps 3

Sticking my head out the window, I felt the strong, cool breeze of the Alps wash over me:















Quite refreshing.

It's also worth noting that the place where we started was now just a small blimp, due the incredible height we were at.

The continuous movement of the express kept the momentum going, constantly spiraling and ascending, you just never knew what jaw-dropping landscape would come around the bend.

There were also some moments when we descended into dark tunnels. We would be cloaked in utterly blackness, but as soon as we would see light at the end of the tunnel, anticipation would build for the next sight to make itself apparent. And time and time again, we would be floored by the scope, scale, and depth the Alps showcased.

While we were all taking in the once-in-a-lifetime experience, our teacher/tour guide was totally knocked out:

Wow, he was missing out...

As we transversed through the Alps and reached higher into the mountains, the temperature rapidly dropped.

I knew we were in Switzerland:















Before I knew it, the entire landscape had become fully white. It was as if I'd been teleported into a whole new world.












I saw my first Swiss local, he looked totally authentic:

The buildings were also wickedly classical:

Snow and ice were all over the deep landscape. I stuck my head out to grab some priceless footage and ended up almost freezing to death. But hey, it was in the name of the blog so it was worth it!

We came upon a fantastic iced lake that sprawled through the mountains:

Ice Lake

Soon our crescendo peaked and we began traveling through the mountains at a level pace.

Snowy Mountains 1

Snowy Mountains 2

We arrived at the snow sprinkled St.Moritz at about 3pm, where we were greeted by all things Swiss, including cheese and men with wild mustaches.

I cannot explain to you the inspiration the ride on the Bernina Express had on me. I was lost in an abyss of a fantastical world that I only thought existed in films, games, and novels. Inspiration is hard to come by in a world where technology and man make themselves apparent, but when you do find it, it tastes utterly celestial.

Here's yours truly, after the draining journey:

We met up with our buses in St.Moritz and took a very short ride to our hotel.

The rest of the day was free, with a dinner scheduled later in the evening.

We ended up just exploring the nearby surroundings which turned out to be quite spectacular.

I saw quite startlingly wooden sculpture that was far different from any of the classical sculptures I'd been experiencing back in Italy:

Here's a shot of the small town of St.Moritz behind me.

Here are some striking visuals that capture the delicate quality of the flourishing countryside:

At about 7pm, we returned to the resort for an authentic Swiss dinner which actually turned out to be more Italian than anything else:

Since I'd been running on basically 3 hours of sleep, I ended up calling it a night after dinner.

We would have to be up by 8am tomorrow and travel to the acclaimed Como Lake.

No rest for the Wicked!

Unfortunately, I needed rest...