Capolago-Riva S. Vitale

Super busy day today, as we wanted to knock out three separate world heritage sites! First problem was that we were perched in our mountain home, 10 minutes from the car and with no breakfast! So we wandered down, hopped in the car and then drove the 20 minutes back to Como, stopping along the way to pick up some cash and some supermarket croissants for breakfast.

Now we headed west, still in Italy, heading for the first site. This one is part of a multi-country listing covering the Longobard period of Italian history - essentially they were a Germanic tribe who occupied northern Italy after the fall of the Roman empire, but before the time of Charlemagne (approx 450-800AD, ish). They left behind quite a cultural legacy, and a few of these are highlighted on the WH list, so we headed to this one.

Listed here was a small chapel, from around the 800s, the interior still covered in frescoes of that era. They were actually really beautiful and interesting, since they'd been done in a Byzantine style rather than a Western one that would look more familiar. Definitely all the usual Biblical stories and fables though. Very well preserved, though they'd been hidden underneath plaster for most of their existence. Funny as well that they were just sitting in a church in essentially an open clearing of forest, only one employee around! No intricate airlocks or complicated systems of humidity and temperature control like in other (more recent) frescoes we've seen.

Onwards we drove in heavy rain to the town of Varese, where a new site awaited: one of the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy. Sacri Monti are literally "sacred mountains", and they're a product of Renaissance era thought. Since at this time the Holy Land was owned by Muslims, pilgrimages were very dangerous. So instead, they would take existing mountain-top sanctuaries and shrines outside towns, and create pilgrimage paths up to them, so that locals could go on a mini "pilgrimage" to the top of the mountain.

Lucky for us we could just drive to the top, though this one had a small community in addition to the sanctuary so it was difficult for us to get a decent idea of what the listing was really all about. It was still raining steadily as well, so neither of us particularly felt like braving more than a little of the path back down. A bit of a let-down here, but we're checking out another one in a few days so hopefully it'll be better.

Back to the car, now mid-afternoon, where we headed for the last stop: Monte San Giorgio. Thankfully this was a single-entry site! It's a large mountain just over the Swiss border, surrounded on three sides by a glacial lake. And because of the way the mountain has formed, it's an extraordinarily rich fossil bed - one of the richest in the world. And what's really cool is that unlike most fossil deposit sites, where it's just a single layer, this has multiple layers spread over several million years, so you can really see how creatures developed in the same area.

We spent about 90 minutes in the museum nearby, as it's still quite a trek out to the mountain and not one we were keen to attempt in the rain. Lots of different fossil examples which is really cool - not just small organisms but all kinds: fish, mammals, lizards, vertebrates, invertebrates, even some plants as well. Museum was quite well done too which helped.

Finally done for the day, we drove back to Como and visited the supermarket to stock up for the next few days. Although it's Italy now and we can afford to eat out again, it's a bloody long walk down from the house and neither of us are super inclined to do it more than we need to! Best part of shopping was picking out pasta - lots of different options in the fresh pasta section, including a crab one that we went with!

Back home where we remembered to pay our bill from last night, then traipse back up the hill to settle in for the night.Read more