“My job is to awaken the soul into the soul realm, so you can have heaven while you’re on earth.” John-Roger, DSS.

 

Lake Como, Italy | Day 9 | September 23

Off to our next adventure on the Bernina Express train to Lake Como. Today is a travel day. The Bernina Express train takes routes through incredible alpine landscapes and the UNESCO world heritage sites all on the beauty of a scenic train. The train takes us high up into the towering glaciers of the mountains and deep down into Italy. The train links Northern and Southern Europe between regions with different languages and cultures and passes thru 55 tunnels, 196 bridges, and inclines at 70 per hour.

We arrive in Lake Como and are staying at the beautiful Grand Hotel Tremezzo. The iconic hotel is located in the heart of Lake Como.

The hotel’s origins date back to the early 1900’s. Lake Como was a favorite destination with the elite, wealthy and cultured foreign visitors from England, Germany, France and Austria, as well as Belgium and Switzerland, and even from Tsarist Russia. Enea Gandola was a gentleman from Bellagio who had traveled widely in Europe and wanted to create something of class and sophistication on one of the world’s most beautiful lakes, a grand hotel. As we arrive, we are greeted and we are seated at the outdoor deck overlooking Lake Como with the most spectacular view and treated to our first Italian meal. The meal consists of Pasta with red sauce, cheese selections out of this world, salads, fresh vegetables, risotto with shrimp and asparagus, the chicken dish with a beautiful sauce and all topped off with Italian pastries and cappuccino. As we enjoy this meal, we are looking out at the spectacular view of Lake Como and the beauty is so exquisite you can almost taste it.

The view is stunning of the Grigne mountains. The hotel is out of this world with Italian charm and sophistication, elegance and warm with the delights immersed in a beautiful century-old park. The foliage is a sense of harmony and tranquility. Rare, ancient magnolias stand amongst palms and clouds of azaleas, tulips, and geraniums, hedges of rhododendron and beds of hydrangeas. A beautiful palette of pinks and reds, purples and blues that leave breathtaking glimpses of the lake beneath.

The sun goes down, and we all head off to our rooms and spend time strolling around the beauty of this extraordinary hotel, more of a palace than a hotel.

After a full day of travel and exploration, it is time to take in the relaxation and calm of the ambiance of this Heaven On Earth Moment in time.

More to come, stay tuned…

In Loving Service,
Love and Light Julie
 

Touring Videos Coming Soon

 
 
 

Touring Photos by David Sand

 
Scroll down to the bottom to read David Sand’s Day 13 travalogue.
 

 

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From David Sand on Day 9:

I was so spiritual yesterday. I was communing with the metaphysical guardians of the planet in Switzerland. Now I’m eating way too much cannoli and forgetting about any levels higher than the physical. They just seem like a dream I had in the mountains. What happened?

What happened was Italy. We descended from cloud-shrouded alpine peaks, on a train and then a bus, to a sumptuous hotel on the shore of Lake Como.

Without even getting our rooms we’re led straight from the bus to a classic Italian lunch with sensational views, warm sunshine and beautiful women sunbathing by the lake. I thought the food in Switzerland was good, but this is at another level—like going from the valley floor to the top of the Matterhorn—or more accurately, in the opposite direction: a hypersonic splashdown after being in the stratosphere. I’d recommend to anyone the experience of going quickly from Switzerland to Italy, It’s an adventure in the rapid shift between polar opposite parts of yourself—the pure and the indulgent, the ethereal and the sensual, the close-tolerant and the wide-tolerant. There’s a fascinating feeling of elevation and expansion in experiencing the opposites as close to simultaneously as possible. I’m forced into acceptance through a very narrow opening in time–a kind of birth. I get a map of my consciousness through triangulation. There’s the Switzerland part of me, the Italy part of me, and me. After living in one area of consciousness that enabled me to contact spirit more easily, God suddenly expands and I have to develop whole new ways of contact.

At first, I don’t like the transition into Italy. It feels chaotic, as though in Switzerland I knew the rules and boundaries and where everything was, and now I’ve been thrown into a maelstrom where there are no limits and everybody’s doing everything and anything they feel like. It’s funny because I’ve always loved Italy, but I’ve never come here directly from Switzerland, and that changes everything. It’s a kind of culture shock, even though we’ve traveled a short distance. It’s harder for me to keep my energy in the upper chakras, and I feel dull, heavy and distracted. Maybe I’m just too sensitive and people like me shouldn’t be allowed into Italy. Maybe they should keep us in Switzerland where we’re on a tighter leash. But I’m sure my eyes will adjust after a day or two. Right now I just feel like I’m trying to work while there’s a wild party going on in the next room. It’s a bit like being in the USA–a similar level of chaos but with greater refinement, more artful and seductive, and it gets in more easily because it’s so alluring. It’s a teasing of the senses with a feather rather than a bludgeoning. The other day I described the process I’ve discovered in many MSIA workshops and trips, where we’re lifted out of our old patterns and then the patterns are presented to us again in a process of choice or temptation. I’d say I’m definitely in the temptation phase now.

It’s amazing how quickly we all respond to our environment. In Switzerland we never stayed very long at a meal. Now we’re Italians, forgetting all about time and lingering at lunch for what seems like hours. Suddenly everything is in vivid color. There’s a room at the hotel with furniture in red, green and orange. It’s furniture as candy. In fact, there are jars of hardcore pure-sugar candy, including multi-colored marshmallows, for the guests to take.

The faces here in Italy are so expressive. I could probably do as much street photography in a day here as I could do in a week in Switzerland. Nothing is held back in the faces. Every minor emotion is expressed. The hotel is what you’d imagine a lavish lakeside Italian resort hotel to be—ornate, lots of gold and marble, with indoors and outdoors intersecting in patios, wall-size open windows, gardens and terraces, all in the combination of good taste and childlike exuberance that no other country can pull off.

Gotta go—time to eat again. There’s cannoli at breakfast.