July 27th– August 3rd – No Sign of George in Rainy Como

Maybe it was the dodgy weather, but we were disappointed to find that there was no sign of George Clooney during our week in Lake Como. It may have been that we were staying in the unfashionable town of Abbadia Larianna, which was on the other side of the Lake from George's pad, or that he didn't want to venture out because it was almost constantly raining or looking like it was about to rain – but Lake Como's most famous resident was conspicuous by his absence.

The locals professed that they'd never know such bad weather in the summer (don't they always say that?), but in between the showers the place did look absolutely gorgeous in the sun. Whenever the sun did come out, the beach in front of the campsite would immediately get chock-a-block with holidaymakers – considering that we were staying in a one-horse town, it was difficult to see where they all came from.

We had an entertaining visit from our friend Sally, who refused to be daunted by the miserable weather, we did a day trip to Milan to walk on the roof of its remarkable duomo, we went to the fancy resort town of Varenna to see how the other half lived, and we played a lot of cards with the rain hammering on the roof of the van, scarcely able to hear each other.

We certainly saw enough of Como to want to come back (in better weather) – every time we planned a boat trip, the weather closed in, so we definitely need to come back, if only to see if Bellagio is as nice as everyone says it is.