When you hear the words “Lake Como”, what comes to mind?

According to a recent New York Times story about Lake Como, you’d be in the majority if you said “George Clooney”!

If I hadn’t been there, I probably would have said his name, too. But having being there, the words that come to my mind are “picturesque”, “blissed out”, and “scarves”.

Scarves? I’ll explain. On my birthday in 2008, I visited the beautiful town of Bellagio on Lake Como. The region is well-known for its silk industry, and this town is filled with shops selling the local silk products. For my birthday gift, I was treated to selecting 2 colourful scarves. It was so hard to choose, and the salesperson was so generous with her advice and patient with my indecision. As she was packing up my eventual choices, she included a lovely handkerchief as her birthday gift to me. It may have been a regular practice of this shop, but I was very touched. To this day, I regularly wear both scarves and always have that handkerchief with me!

Then to use my other words, I “blissed out” at a long birthday lunch on the terrace at Ristorante Bilacus, followed by a leisurely and “picturesque” walk through the town and along the lake to digest the big lunch.

How lucky to have spent my birthday in such a gorgeous place, and also how lucky to have a profession where I can relive those memories with every ink line and paint stroke! My latest ink and watercolour miniature, “Bellagio Street”:

#110 – Bellagio Street – sold

In Studio (2.5″ x 3.5″)

Just Sold in my Etsy shop, ArtWeWonderful