Menaggio

Our 2nd day in Menaggio dawns cloudy with some sun. Views of Lake Como and the surrounding towns nestled in the mountains from our condo still spectacular. Leisurely breakfast while we do another load of wash - washing machine cycle is about an hour and a half - maybe longer. Since it is Sunday we decided to hike to a church. You can see a small church way up on top of one of the nearby mountains. (When the weather clears will add a picture from here - done). Trail head was about 25 minutes up the mountain from our condo in a village named Breglia.

Easy to find the parking lot and off we went. This was only going to be about an hour walk through the woods to the church and another small chapel. It was a lovely walk, some up but not too bad. Wonderful green forest and glimpses of the Lake very far below. A few others on the trail as well but not many. The very small church had a paved walkway from the town and long cobblestone steps leading to the sanctuary. The site dates from the 1100s but a "new" church built there in the 1700s. An great Sunday AM walk in the woods.

Back to the condo for lunch and then off to Lenno, a village about 6-7 miles from us. We are headed for Villa Balbianello, a magnificent villa perched over Lake Como. We walked about a mile from where we parked the car to the villa. This afternoon they have a Lake Como Music Festival event - a harpist and a sax/clarinet that did an hour and a half of wonderful music in a spectacular setting. Very special. Lots of villas with gardens in the area to visit. The wisteria is in bloom and I have never seen such lush and full wisteria. Looking for some clear weather for good pictures.

After the music, off to Porlezza which is only about 15 miles away but is on the North end of Lake Lugano and just 5-7 miles from Switzerland. We want to do a hike from our place to Porlezzo. Our hiking book says it is 14.5K or about 9 miles. So we did a scouting trip. Got hungry there so stopped for pizza and gelato (frozen yougurt for Kay) for dinner. Home for some planning and catching up on e-mail.
Miles: 5
Flights: 32!Read more