Summary
Headed to Lake Como in the Italian Alps and the town of Bellagio. The winding drive was beautiful but hair-raising much of the time with oncoming drivers zipping around the corner in our lane at high speed. Stopped in Nesso to see the Orrido di Nesso. This involved about a million stairs down to the water to see the famous but imho overrated gorge and waterfall. Had a good lunch in town up on a shady terrace with a great view. Scarier than our drive was finding our rental apartment and our paid parking place through the massive crowds of daytrippers (they didn’t realize they were on an actual road). Did some exploring and grocery shopping. Bellagio is really picturesque, but it’s built on a steep hill so required climbing many stairs. Happily, by late afternoon the crowds had left and our experience improved.
Details
It’s 80 degrees in our room when we awake at 6:30. The windows were open all night (til around 6 am when some birds started noisily greeting the day).
It’s a lovely morning. We see no boats motoring about. The lake is still and quiet. Maybe this is what it was like 100 years ago. When the first boat of the day does show, it’s a small motor boat delivering a half dozen smallish boxes. I guess it’s replacement alcohol for what was consumed at the restaurant/rehearsal dinner yesterday.
We shower, dress and head down to breakfast. It’s the usual. There are big roughly cut chunks of different kinds of sausage and cold cuts. They’re labeled, which doesn’t improve their attractiveness to me.
Our first decision? inside or out. Outside is in the bright sun and there are a half dozen small birds hopping around everywhere looking for crumbs to clean up. Inside it is.
We each order scrambled eggs. They arrives very yellow, heavy and rich. We guess that they need lots of egg whites for some dessert or appetizer and the leftover egg yolks get kept in the refrigerator until morning, when they are made into scrambled eggs. Not our favorite.
The ferry is on time and takes us back to the mainland. Our car (and balance of our luggage) is still there, thankfully, unmolested. We hop in and head the ninety minutes to Bellagio. We have planned a couple of stops before we get there. The first is a reportedly gorgeous gorge.
Much of the drive is along the lake. In and out. Up and down. Lots of tight corners. Lots of cars, trucks and bikes, appearing quickly from out of nowhere. Very exciting.
At one point we go through the city of Como. It’s a long harrowing drive. Today is obviously market day and apparently it’s a huge market. Everyone seems to be there. The pedestrians we see have done their shopping and now need to cross the street back (with their bags) back to their double parked car. I pointlessly reconsider whether I should’ve taken the car rental insurance.
In the town of Nesso we park and hike, a half mile down to the gorge. There are quite a number of young people heading back from the gorge, most in wet swimsuits. The gorge is pretty good looking, but is surrounded by apartments and houses. We’re obviously not in the middle of some natural paradise. The big draw for the kids is the swimming area on the lake and the bridge and other structures from which on one can jump. We had not seen a lot of youngsters so far on the trip. We think where us oldsters go is typically diametrically opposed to where the kids go these days. Here our two paths cross.
Our hike down was on a very long trail with a gentle slope downward from the high mountain road to the lake level. We head back up using a different route: on stone stairs that go directly from the water back up to the road in one leap. It is grueling.
At the top we find a number of restaurants with exorbitant prices and the same menu as everywhere else. There’s a grocery store doing good business to the youngsters. Continuing our looking we find a restaurant we like and have lunch. The place has a gorgeous view and the food is surprisingly good. The clientele are Italian, Americans, French, etc. Again the waiter seems to be fluent all the required languages. Back in our car we continue our drive.
At our second stop, a garden which we’re supposed to see, there is no parking so we press on smartly. Bellagio isn’t far, so let’s get there! In Bellagio, as we near our hotel, there are throngs of people crowding the very narrow street we’re supposed to drive down. Doing so would be insane.
I double park while Karen goes and retrieves our apartment keys and papers. The documentation explains that we are, in fact, supposed to drive down this tourist-packed street. Two other vehicles pass and start down the street, so I quickly fall in behind. Every so often there’s a natural break in the crowd and we get to crawl forward a few feet. Other than that you just have to wait for someone to notice there’s a car in the street and have everyone pin their bodies against the walls so we can pass. They don’t look pleased. There are tons of people everywhere taking pictures of everything, oblivious to the cars.
Finally, a few hundred yards along, we reach our lodging. There’s a little pullout and we use it. Luggage taken up to our room, we continue on, experiencing more of the same. I was excited to have a plug-in hybrid but now it’s so quiet people don’t hear it and have no idea we’re here.
In our documentation are instructions for where our paid car park is. The instructions aren’t very clear as to where we’re supposed to go, so at one point I see “Parc” and assume that’s in and turn in. Yay! Boo. Whoops! It’s not a “car parc” it’s a parc. Like Central Park. Grass, swings, slides, children. Put the car in reverse, we gotta back onto that busy road.
We eventually find the parking. We’ve paid 25€ a night not to have to touch the car. Cheap, I say. We unpack and wander. At a hole-in-the-wall grocery store we buy some breakfast stuff, beer and wine. It feels good to have a kitchen!
Between 6 and 8 pm, as required, we report to the office to present our passports, pay the city taxes, etc. The nice lady who manages all these apartments is a firecracker/hoot and is happy to talk as long as we are.
The topic of influencers and Instagram comes up. She’s not a fan. We get a funny earful, plus advice of where to go and what to see. She gives us maps. One map shows the big lake with its obvious left and right legs. Bellagio, at the high point between the two legs, begs a question. Karen asks it. “Yes” the woman laughs, “it too has anatomical name, even to the Italians”. Karen asks “male or female?” It turns out they use the male, but she says it’s such a pretty place they should use the female anatomical part name. I’m blushing.
We walk to dinner (of course). There are so many options. We choose a good one and it’s mostly already full. Around us? All Americans. The first time this trip.
Photos
