Lake Como, Bellagio and Varenna – we really are living La Dolce Vita!
Saturday 17 June – we’re off an adventure today – we’re taking the train up to Lake Como for the day. We were up early and onto the Metro back to Milano Centrale station and the train to Como. A 40-minute ride and we were arrived in this lovely little lakeside town.
We wanted to take the ferry around the lake and Geoff had also reserved a table for us for lunch in Bellagio. Amazingly, there are not many ferries and there were a heck of a lot of tourists. Geoff slyly approached the ticket office from the opposite direction to the long queue and easily got us tickets for the ferry at 1010 hrs and we sat in the square with a coffee and croissant whilst we waited to board. Once again, Geoff “managed” to get us to the top of the queue, but when we got to the gangplank, they closed it in front of the two people in front of us. Full!!!! We begged the girl to let us on (“4 more people” as George Gregan might have said!) as the next ferry wasn’t until 1210 hrs and it was a 2 ½ hour sail to Bellagio and we had a lunch booking for 1330 hrs! She wasn’t having any of it though! Geoff went back to the ticket office for a refund and just as he was standing at the kiosk the captain looked up and said 4 more – the people behind me started pushing and luckily Geoff heard me screaming at the top of my voice to get him to come back, he snatched our ticket back from the girl and we just made it before the chain came down behind us!!!!
It was a lovely sail, zigzagging across the lake, we stopped about 24 times at the most picturesque, little villages, Cernobbio Villa d’Este, Lenno, Tremezzo, Villa Carlotta to name a few – many having been used for film sets including “A Month by the Lake” Ocean’s Twelve”, “Casino Royale” as well as many classic Italian movies. Further down the lake the Alps, still with snow on their peaks came into view. It was such a wonderful trip, and so nice to be relaxing on the boat taking in all this beauty.
We arrived in Bellagio and made our way to La Terrazza restaurant which is located in The Belvedere Hotel. This hotel was built in 1880 and is a family property preserved by five generations of women. Today, three generations, a grandmother Signora Lucia, her daughter Signora Tiziana and her granddaughter Giulia, are there to welcome guests to this idyllic haven overlooking the picturesque bay of Pescallo and framed by the Alps. Geoff had booked us a lovely table on the edge of the terrace - it was fabulous, charming and peaceful and the lunch was rather delicious too, Mediterranean flavours with colours to match. I don’t normally take photos of my food but couldn’t resist the two colourful ones below, they were as delicious as they looked.
A walk around Bellagio and then we were on the move again. We bought a ticket to the next stop, Varenna, another stunning lakeside location and only about a 20 minute sail away.
We thoroughly enjoyed wandering around this charming little town although I have to say there are plenty of steps here and it was bloody hot going up them in the middle of the afternoon! A lovely little place with pretty scenery, botanical gardens and jaw-dropping panoramic views, we loved it! We rewarded ourselves with a tasty gelato in the town square before a “for old time’s sake” moment for Geoff, revisiting the Hotel du Lac where he had previously stayed with his family. We had a great afternoon, but decided it might be easier to go back to Milan on the train, which only takes an hour, as there were so many queues for the boats and it would have been about a 4-hour journey by the time we got the lake boat and then the train from Como back to Milan.
In hindsight this might not have been a great idea – the station was tiny with one rail track, the far one, which services both directions. We were 20 minutes early for the train and there were two very young Italian railway girls trying to keep all the tourists at bay and off the first track. By the time the train was due to arrive, the platform was heaving! Then the train was late, so we stood on the platform for about 45 minutes in all with more people joining the throng. When it turned up, it was a bunfight – the girls had no control, the passengers all crossed the track before the train had even stopped and everyone was running hell for leather down the little strip of platform trying to get on! Geoff and I joined them, running over the sleepers and finally pushing ourselves into what was an already full carriage, resulting in us standing for the best part of the journey! Oh well, all part of the adventure and quite funny really but we were pretty buggered by the time we got home! Another fabulous day and some more memories to add to what has become a huge bank of them on this holiday!
Sunday 18 June – I’m standing with our luggage in the reception area of the apartment block where our Air BnB is, waiting for Geoff to arrive with the rental car. It’s a quiet Sunday morning and all I can hear is church bells which is just perfect.
Next stop Bologna – the food capital of Italy!