Como-Tozed 🇮🇹

The best way to concisely capture Part Two of my Lake Como adventure is:

Cappuccino aperol, pizza, pasta, cappuccino, aperol, aprerol, aperol, repeat.

I have also made a wonderful new friend Alisa from Bristol who loves aperol and festivals and has awesome hair and tattoos.

However, it would be amiss of me if I didn’t share another 'highlight' from the trip – so let me tell you about the world’s loudest snorer, if I may.

As a seasoned backpacker, with 15 years + of staying in hostels, you quickly become accustomed to snorers in a dorm room. But on this particular trip, my Lake Como roommate on the bunk opposite is in a different league altogether, let me tell you.

When I describe the snoring as a humpback whale, dying a slow and agonising death - it is no exaggeration, believe me.

Perhaps it’s the lethal cocktail of Aperol, combined with complex carbohydrates (pizza and pasta) throw in perhaps a few extra pounds around the waist… who knows? Perhaps the extra surface area reverberates the sound better.

Firstly, I resist the temptation to deploy the popular ‘pillow over the face’ manoeuvre, as I don’t fancy spending the rest of my days in an Italian prison cell.

Bear in mind readers, it is only a mere 10pm at this stage, and my other roommate Reef and I, from LA, are hatching a Machiavellian plan to wake him from his slumber, using a more conventional method – an actual phone alarm!

When I say we try EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMN alarm and retro ringtone (including the Nokia theme) it is no exaggeration. We attempt to stifle our fits of giggles (not exactly sure why, given it’s going to take an earthquake to wake this dude).

And funnily enough, in true earthquake style, that’s how this mini story ends - Reef grips the frame of the bunk and channels his best homemade tremor, and finally snoring man has awoken.

Finally peace is restored to Lake Como.

Five minutes pass....

LOUD SNORE

FML

📣 Top tip for stopping someone snoring in a hostel room 📣

A short sharp clap of the hands is enough to bring the snorer out of the deep level of sleep and not wake up your fellow roommates. Don’t ask me how the science works but I assume it brings them out of the deep stage of sleep, without waking them, or your fellow roomies up.

You can try this at home with your partner. Yes, you’re welcome.

📸 Here is Alisa and I with the best view in the hostel restaurant