The House that George (Clooney didn't) Build

Bellagio. One word conjures up such great images of dice, free booze, sleazy strip bars, water fountain shows, and erupting faux volcanoes. But the REAL Bellagio is much more sedate.

The REAL Bellagio is a town situated on a peninsula on Lake Como in Italy. Think of the lake as an upside-down "Y". There's no terribly direct trains to the location, so we took the train to Como and poured ourselves into a taxi where the driver was the stunt double for "Crazy Driver 2" on the Dreamcast. After gnawing off 3 fingernails, we unpacked at the Hotel Belvedere (pronounce all of the letters) and spent the better part of a week soaking up the lakeside views, eating fresh fish, working on our tans, listening to British accents, getting hammered on limoncello, and subjecting ourselves to really bad European synth renditions of the Captain and Tennille.

Although Lake Como is home to reclusive Swiss billionaires and their flashy Italian mistresses, Bellagio doesn't give it away. It's mediocre shopping is more gelato- and pasta-based rather than Gucci. If you go, try haggling with the vendors across the lake in Tremezzo, eat at the terrasse at La Pergola (take the long way around), and be waited on poolside at the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni.

No trip to Lake Como would be complete without seeing the two attractions that every Hollywood-crazed American is looking to take pictures of: the Star Wars Naboo house and George Clooney's Italian bachelor pad. For some, the imagery of catching George dockside with his junk hanging out is enough of an enticement to hire private "boat taxis" that stealthily cruise the shore with hopes of grabbing that $1M photo that gets sold to Star magazine. This is a shot of his house.

Then there's the Naboo house. For those of you that don't know about this thing called "Google", the lakeside Naboo house in Episode II of the Star Wars saga is actually Villa Balbianello, a majestic mansion that was once a monastery. Sold to a number of owners throughout the years, including an American General, the villa was left to the Italian National Trust. It's served as the set on Star Wars, to the remake of the 007 Casino Royale, to the iffy chick flick "A Month on the Lake" (IMDB description conjures of images of "Under the Tuscan Sun" with potential for a MILF-hottie threeway, then possible catfight afterwards).

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