Italy

Today we decided to head into Como. A bit of retail therapy and to look at the large impressive Villa Omo. Where we are at Bellano we don't have the number of ferries that the 3 primary ports get so the earliest ferry into Como left Bellano at 11.15, getting us into Como at 12. Same situation for the return journey, either catch the 4 pm ferry back or the 7pm. Turns out we weren't going to be done in time to catch the earlier one so stayed on til evening. Another hot day so walking to the Villa didn't seem far but proved to be quite sweat-inducing!!! Along the way we passed several other Villas - all apparently vacant having been purchased by the local administration back in the 1950's and now don't seem to be occupied or used for anything. We finally made to the Villa only to discover it's only opened on Saturdays. Damn. Back we walk into town. God, its hot. We find an air conditioned bar and for once none of us order anything alcoholic. It was home made lemonade with mint to cool us down. Spent a bit of time wandering the shops, of course who could pass up the opportunity for Italian shoes? Not us. We found a bar with a good gin menu, spent a bit of time there, then moved two down where they had good bar food. Funnily enough the hours til 7pm went quite quickly.Read more