Closest place to do major grocery shopping is in Bellagio. However, for fresh panini, milk, odds-and-ends you might as well support the local smaller stores. There's a tiny store that sells just enough to survive. Walk down to the main street, turn left and go past Restaurant Crotto. It is somewhere in the block on your right hand side.
Hard to explain how to get to this hidden place from there. I suggest you wait and follow a hungry-looking local person. My sister had told us you just enter ...
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You can enjoy a nice view virtually everywhere around Como Lake. But it is hard to find a better view than the one at  Trattoria Baita Belvedere in Chevrio where you seem to hang over the mountain edge overlooking Bellagio and the three branches of the lake. As is the case in most agriturismi type restaurants, the food is fantastic too. If you want to work up an appetite, you should park the car at the Tabbaccharia that is on your right just before getting to Bellagio. From the parking you ca...
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Last Christmas we stayed at casa3dici. My sister and her family were also in Lezzeno. We got snowed in the first couple of days but, mama mia, did it look nice outside!
Best memory: Christmas morning 11:00 o'clock: Washing down fresh oysters (from Zeeland of course) with a good Prosecco with family and Italian neighbors. What more can you wish for?
By the way, Christmas and New Years weeks are still available for 2010 and beyond!

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Jaap and family, having been in Italy for so long, speak better Italian than most Italians. We, however, did not speak a word beyond pizza. I was determined to at least be able to exchange some information with my neighbors while staying among the Italians. We soon learned to that besides ciao, a salve! works well, especially when you don't know people. I bought some teach-yourself-Italian books with incredibly boring CDs but was really pleased (mi piace molto!) to find My Daily Phrase Italia...
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top floor before...	kitchen before...

To say that casa3dici needed a bit of work would be an understatement: The top floor (see picture) was a dark and dusty mess, sky showed thru the roof. The kitchen was 19th century (remember those days, kids?) and had a huge, ugly fireplace which also functioned as the central heating system. Doriano renewed the roof and made the roof terrace. Jaap and family spent countless weekends slaving away on the kitchen and other parts of the house. Us, being in Hol...
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Eventhough I know just a little bit more Italian than the salute above, it is not a good idea yet to post a blog in Italian. Perhaps soon.... but for the time being I will stick to English because I know a lot of our visitors do not read Dutch.

My name is Cees van der Woude, married to Christel Klapwijk. We own half of casa3dici (would that be casa6emezzo?) and live in the province of Zeeland in the south-west of Holland. The other half is owned by Jaap Zwaan and Lianne Schreuder who have been...
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