This morning after breakfast Mum went for a stroll into the small Town of Belaggio, whilst Dad and I went down to the hotel's pool where I did the same if not more swimming than what I had done yesterday. After about an hour or two of swimming and jumping off the diving board we went and had lunch, which was followed by a boat tour around Lake Como which included stopping of at the (In the tour guides opinion) most beautiful villa on the whole lake.
At the Villa we learnt that six out of the seven days in a week were used for weddings (see pics below), we also learnt that it was once a monastery and that it was changed into a villa by a Cardinal 200 years ago and that it was then bought by an explorer (ooohhh how exciting) who turned it into the beautiful villa it is now today. The explorer that lived here used the money from his father who was the first person to make a super-market chain in Italy so as you could probably tell Money from exploring+Money from business=A whole lot of money to roll around in. We were told that one of his more famous expeditions was conquering Mt. Everest, I had to remind him that the kiwi's did it first(As per normal) another interesting I guess you could call it thing that we learnt was that in slang terms he was a "Player" which was the reason for the secret passages between guest bedrooms and his one. He also made it impossible for said guests to escape out the windows thanks to a handy locking system. We then walked into the "Man Cave" of the house where there were leather chairs wood panelling flown in from France which turned out to be too tall so instead of shortening the panelling he just made the room taller(why not, who needs rich people donating to charities any way?), when we walked outside of the "Man Cave" we found a what looked like bookshelf with glass in front of it but instead as the guide showed us it was nothing more than a secret whisky and glasses storage cabinet with a mini-bar.
Once the tour was finished and we'd walked outside we found massive tree shaped like an umbrella, we asked the tour guide how it kept it's shape to which he answered there are two people that come to the villa once every year to cut the tree by hand(Well obviously not with their hands but with leaf cutters) which takes about fifteen days. Here are the photos that we took on the tour with some photos of star wars movies and James Bond Casino Royale compared to the photos that we took.
Joseph Hewson
At the Villa we learnt that six out of the seven days in a week were used for weddings (see pics below), we also learnt that it was once a monastery and that it was changed into a villa by a Cardinal 200 years ago and that it was then bought by an explorer (ooohhh how exciting) who turned it into the beautiful villa it is now today. The explorer that lived here used the money from his father who was the first person to make a super-market chain in Italy so as you could probably tell Money from exploring+Money from business=A whole lot of money to roll around in. We were told that one of his more famous expeditions was conquering Mt. Everest, I had to remind him that the kiwi's did it first(As per normal) another interesting I guess you could call it thing that we learnt was that in slang terms he was a "Player" which was the reason for the secret passages between guest bedrooms and his one. He also made it impossible for said guests to escape out the windows thanks to a handy locking system. We then walked into the "Man Cave" of the house where there were leather chairs wood panelling flown in from France which turned out to be too tall so instead of shortening the panelling he just made the room taller(why not, who needs rich people donating to charities any way?), when we walked outside of the "Man Cave" we found a what looked like bookshelf with glass in front of it but instead as the guide showed us it was nothing more than a secret whisky and glasses storage cabinet with a mini-bar.
Once the tour was finished and we'd walked outside we found massive tree shaped like an umbrella, we asked the tour guide how it kept it's shape to which he answered there are two people that come to the villa once every year to cut the tree by hand(Well obviously not with their hands but with leaf cutters) which takes about fifteen days. Here are the photos that we took on the tour with some photos of star wars movies and James Bond Casino Royale compared to the photos that we took.
Getting to the Villa
A small tower connected to the Villa
A photo of the Villa from the boat
Looking down to the Sea
The walk up
The Wedding Venue
Still the same
The Brides Maids
The Bride and her Father
The Umbrella Tree
ME!
The Gardens
Mum
Here it is in Star Wars
Here it is in Casino Royale with James Bond
Above is Richard Branson's villa on the way back (owner of Virgin airlines and Virgin Megastores)
Rent for $185,000 NZ Dollars or 115,000 Euro per week.
When we returned to the hotel after a nice dinner we met the Concierge that knew that I could play the Piano and that I liked classical music as well as many other genres, so he asked us if we would like to listen to the trio of pianist, violinist, double bass. After we'd been listening for a while he brought me over to the trio and asked me to play the piano so I played Fur Elise and Clocks to which the guy playing the double base and the violinist started to which made for the best evening ever with my new found friends(IT WAS AWESOME!: ^ )
That was my (Awesome, Epic, Wish it would never end, One of a kind) Day!
Joseph Hewson
What a great day you had So pleased you got to play with the Jazz trio too. We will expect a rendition on your return. Have fun and enjoy the journey on to new places today.
ReplyDeleteoh i do hope your performance was captured on video...
ReplyDelete