Boating Lake Como

Mother Nature outdid herself when she created Lake Como.  We are staying at the Hotel Barchetta Excelsior, which overlooks the lake and is just steps from the pier where you can take one of several boats to explore the lake.  We chose the “slow boat” that makes about a dozen stops and ends up at Varenna (no that is not a misspelling of Ravenna, but quite coincidental).  There is a “fast boat” (a hydrofoil) that whisks you all the way to the northern shores of the lake, but it is difficult to take pictures on this boat, so we chose the slower one and went only about half way up the lake.

 The city of Como from the lake

Lake Como floods the valley among the many mountains making their way into the Swiss Alps.  In the northernmost parts of our voyage we could see the snowcapped mountains of Switzerland, but for the most part we saw mountains high enough that the tops were beyond the tree line.

 Look hard and you can see the snow capped alps in the background.

One of many harbors along the lake.

Another harbor in Varenna

.

Most of the towns and villages along the way were close to the shore, where they began as fishing towns.  Yet there are several towns high up on the sides of the mountains as well. 

The houses are located on the terraced hills, with roads carved into the sides as if chiseled out.  Huge bridges fill in where the carving was impossible.

It is hard to keep from taking a picture every few seconds.  Today we took over 400 pictures while on the boat and during our brief trips to the cities of Bellagio and Varenna.

Bellagio was our primary destination for the day, and it was well worth the trip.  Lake Como looks like an inverted Y and Bellagio is situated at the point where the two lower parts are joined.  

 Coming into Bellagio.  The lake splits into two legs here and the town is right between them.

When you get off the boat you are immediately faced with a long flight of cobblestone steps.  You can’t really see how far you have to climb to reach the top, so you just start climbing.  The path up the steps is flanked with all manner of stores and restaurants.  We stopped at a coffee shop about half way up to catch our breaths and have a cappuccino and a cup of tea.

 

 

When we reached the top we found some wonderful shops where we found genuine Italian clothes, cheeses, salamis, and other fine stuff.  We filled our backpack with loot and headed back down in time to catch the next boat to Varenna.

Varenna was not quite as commercial as Bellagio, but had some wonderfully photographic opportunities.  We even got a lesson on creating the cobblestone paths.

 The view from Varenna toward Como.

Just another beautiful town with the church as a central feature.

The ride back was on a much bigger boat, but it needed to be.  At the second stop we picked up a field trip of about 50 school kids.  They looked to be about 11-12.  They were pretty well behaved…I noticed that they were pretty conscientious about throwing away their trash.  But the longer we went, the louder they got.  It confirmed my decision to retire.

Tomorrow we will take a train back to Milan to do some looking around and maybe some more shopping.  One of the things on our list is a new suitcase, as ours bit the dust on the train from Venice.  The trains don’t really have enough storage for suitcases and such—at least not when they are filled to capacity as this one was.  Stuff is crammed everywhere and luggage is constantly shifting and falling into the aisles.  As nice as the rail system is, this is a problem.

 These last two pics are of a nice little house on the lake.  I put in a bid for this place and if my bid is accepted I become the gardener.