Cold showers inside and outside

9/5 Stresa / Arona
Oh dear, no hot water for showers so we each had a dance around under the cold, we managed. Reception lady was a bit defensive, said that the plumber was coming but admitted someone else had complained - she said if we're not told then we don't know. Hmmmm. Latish breakfast then life admin: Pete the washer person found the laundrette and did our washing, rather him than me, it took a bit of intuition and help from the laundry man and it was all done. Because we’d had a busy day on Monday, and I’m having trouble with my back/shoulder again unfortunately, we thought we’d have a fairly easy day so took the local bus to Arona which is on the lake about 30 minutes south.

While waiting for the bus I popped into the church behind us, a large non-descript building but, as you can see from the photos, there are always surprises. Beautiful stained glass, an ornate altar, these churches are quite gloomy but that aside they really are lovely. Pete's not so interested but I always like to have a look.

There were a lot of roadworks in that short distance, resurfacing/road carpet, so a few hold-ups but really it was a pretty drive with the lake on one side and a lot of the right side was dark stone walls, some covered in ivy or other climbers, some just bare stones. Some random houses on the roadside, I’d love to know how old they are and what they look like inside. On the lake there were little beaches with a few boats on the water and as we got closer to Arona could see the 13th century Borromeo castle with what looks like a big slip below it but is apparently solid rock. It’s open to the public but not easy for short-time tourists like us to visit. Never mind.

We headed towards the waterfront only to find it was market day and it was wall-to-wall tents and touts with more handbags than in the whole of Nelson, clothes and more clothes, shoes, toys, every item repeated four stalls along, and then again you name it and it was there. They were starting to pack things up when we walked through around midday and was completely gone when we were leaving after 2pm. I believe there’s a market in five surrounding towns on different days, Stresa’s turn on Fridays.

Of course cat things called and I found a cat apron on a stall selling all sorts of linen including cat tablecloths which I resisted. I did buy a cheap handbag though, pretty floral, and if it only lasts a season I’ll still be happy.

We stopped at a nice café on the lake front and had a couple of club sandwiches, it was completely empty but the service was excellent and the sandwiches were fresh and hot, obviously straight out of the oven. We sat outside under a big umbrella and the seagulls kept landing, then skidding down the umbrella, it was funny. Had a wander along the waterfront where we saw a gun and memorial, it said something like lest we forget but no information which was a pity as I've got that photos translator app and it's useful, and Pete is interested in the war history wherever we travel.

Had a look around the narrow streets but it wasn’t all that exciting other than the surprise of very upmarket shops down very nondescript alleys. There was quite a bit of building work going on, weather was threatening so headed to the station only to miss the bus (it departed early, according to the timetable we had), waited for the next one only to be told by a non-English-speaking driver that it wasn’t going (according to our timetable it was – but he was right, it didn’t) so by this time I was getting a bit ‘princessy’, had had enough of waiting round anxiously thinking we were being told the wrong time again (yes, Pete is very patient) and in the end we took the train back.

We took the ‘short cut’ back to the hotel which is actually only a couple of hundred meters away, this took us slightly left and a bit longer down a couple of quite steep stone stairways and through little driveways into houses. We’d seen a church from by the hotel and walked past it, I was going to have a look inside but then realised it had been converted into a house, hence the mail box, kids toys, flower boxes. It looked very pretty though. I took a photo of the religious plaque on the house opposite, maybe it had been the presbytery.

Rain set in so we got a cup of tea in the lobby, no tea making facilities in the room, had I mentioned that? We were charged 6 euro for that and I’m not happy. Another reason for sitting in the lobby is that the wifi actually works there reasonably well so we both had a good catch up on news and emails………and then the lobby was over-run by a bunch of kids on their devices so that was that. Later we had a really good pizza, fries and gelato at the nearest eating place to our hotel, it was very busy with people being turned away in the rain. For the evening we settled in to the blog and Pete’s latest research on the whereabouts of Commonwealth war graves and are there any near here. The answer is Milan is closest.

So that was our day, certainly quieter but what we needed as we knew Wednesday’s trip by train and boat would be another longish one.Read more