Lombardy

Woke up to gorgeous sunshine around 8.00am and a heron observing proceedings from the top of a tree. I cracked on with my domestic duties of hanging up our damp clothes, getting the coffee on and running to the shop for a couple of plain croissants for breakfast. I showered and waited another hour for Jackie to return from the shower block - nearly ready for the day.

It was not too long after 10.30pm, that we drove out of the campsite and headed to Menaggio with the intention of catching a ferry across Lake Como to Varenna, which is famous for it’s olive oil. The plan was then to get a 2nd ferry to Bellagio, an apparently beautiful little town on a peninsula on Lake Como, then get the ferry back to Menaggio.

We drove past little Lake Piano, which was behind us in a flash, then we wound our way down to the ferry port in Varenna. It was heaving with tourists and despite our best efforts we could not find a single parking place. I was going to blame Jackie for taking so long to get ready but I tactically didn’t!

Instead, we decided to drive down to the town of Como and back along the western shore of Lake Como, then try again to find a parking place and catch a ferry. We headed south to the town of Griante, where we espied another ferry terminal called Caddenabbia and a pretty much empty car park beside it. We paid €3 for 3 hours parking and bought 2 return ferry tickets to Bellagio for €18.

Half an hour later we were cruising across Lake Como on our 20 minute ferry crossing. When we arrived in Bellagio it was busy with tourists, but also smacked of money. After disembarkation, we strolled up and down a flowery promenade, then headed past the exceptionally expensive looking restaurants and hotels to the very end of the peninsula. We espied a suitable unobtrusive bar for a beer & sat down at a nice table. Unfortunately, or as it turned out luckily, there was only one waiter and after 15 minutes we still hadn’t placed our order for an overpriced beer, so we abandoned ship.

After meandering around the backstreets of Bellagio, we dropped back down to the port and an half an hour later we were on the ferry heading back to Caddenabbia. We returned to the car and headed south hoping to find somewhere less busy (and expensive!) for a beer. Literally minutes later we found that place, Bar Roma, in Tremezzo.

Bar Roma had an outdoor seating area overlooking Lake Como with an extremely attractive vista. We ordered 2 large beers and the waitress talked us into ordering their homemade local pasta dish. We didn’t even know what it was other than it was some sort of buckwheat pasta, mushrooms and cheese. It came with a bowl of bite sized chunks of bread and the beers arrived with a huge bowl of crisps. It was a pleasant lunch hour.

We drove on down south along the western shore of the lake to the town of Como. The road was narrow, often reduced to just enough room for one vehicle at a time. Fortunately the road wasn’t too busy, but I dread to think what it would be like in the height of summer. The road provided a lovely drive with lots of picturesque churches and villas overlooking the lake.

We parked up near Como’s impressive Cathedral. We had a quick run around the heaving town and popped inside the Cathedral. Como was architecturally attractive in the tourist areas around the cathedral, but it did have quite a few homeless people and beggars. We didn’t stay too long.

We then selected a non toll road and non motorway route back to Camping Darna. Just outside of Como, we re-entered Switzerland, then embarked on a hideously steep and windy road that was made worse by its narrowness. Jackie was a nervous wreck, to the point of having an anxiety attack, as we squeezed past oncoming traffic. By strange coincidence and right on cue, my Spotify playlist started playing a song by Hurt which had the lyrics “We’re all going to die. We’re all going to die”. This really helped!

Eventually we reached the summit and entered back into Italy. We were amazed to discover that there was a golf course, Golf Club Lanza, no distance from the summit. We careered back down the mountain with clenched buttocks as we squeezed past more traffic to Lake Lugano. We continued on to the Carrefour Supermarket in Porlezza, where we purchased all the necessary ingredients for a Chilli con carne, salad & another 5 litres of white wine.

Back at camp Jackie cooked up the Chilli con carne, with considerable assistance from me by regularly stirring the pot. I also wrote my blog and chatted to Marco, our Dutch neighbour. We had a pleasant evening with G&Ts followed by red and white wine. The chilli was as expected delicious. I was even allowed 4 chocolate biscuits for dessert, after Jackie had had a bite out of each.

The weather today had been a sunny 27 & 28 degrees around Lake Como and we were treated to a lovely dry balmy evening back at the campsite for our alfresco dinner.

Song of the Day - That (Such A Thing) by Hurt.Read more