Varenna & Vezio

The lake side of Varenna

With the good old reliable church bells, there was no need for an alarm. Actually, with a mother who was still adjusting to the new time zone, there was no need for an alarm. She was up at 5am trying to completely dry her soaked walking shoes from last night. Thankfully we managed to get some more sleep before the church bells then did its job of waking us up. We had the morning to explore before commencing our southward journey and chose to wander in the vicinity of Varenna.

We thought we'd make use of the cooler morning weather to hike up to Castello di Vezio taking the southern route. It was a quite a steep climb and we made it in 35 minutes despite our slow pace and several rest stops. I must say our arrival prior to the 10 am opening surprised me! Castello di Vezio is essentially the ruins of an old watch tower. It didn't take long to explore the ruins itself. The drawcard of the attraction was the expansive view of Lake Como. We thought we would try the northern route to get back to Varenna but that ended up being a bad idea. The route coming down was not clear and it felt a lot more difficult than the way up. It was also definitely not as scenic. By the time we reached Varenna, it was time for lunch by the water. Our post lunch stroll around Varenna did not take long and it was soon time to move on.

The hike started off so easy on the road...

It soon became a trail

with farms

and olive groves

and it just kept going up and up and up...

Amazing views nearly all the way

And of course there was a clay court along the way?!!

Finally at the small village of Vezio

Castello still not open!

Panoramic view of Lake Como from the top

The entrance of the small watch tower

You could climb all the way to the top

Every opening had a beautiful view

The walk back down

So glad to be back at Varenna. Time for lunch!

Frozen cappuccino after a tiring morning

One last lake view meal

From here, the day became stressful as we experienced the woes of Italian train troubles. We hopped on a train that came at the advertised time to discover that it was actually the train before our intended train. All the trains were running late. The conductor told us to alight at Lecco and get on the train that came after. Unfortunately once at Lecco, things got worse. The boards stated that our train would depart from platform 2. As there was a train already there, we sprinted to change platforms and got on the train only to be told that it was not the train that we needed to be on. Our train should be the next train to leave from platform 2. We got off just in time before the train doors closed. It was then announced that our train was running 30 minutes late which meant that we would now miss our connecting train. Arghhh! It was only by a pure luck that we noticed the details for the train on the platform had completely disappeared. When we went back down to check, the platform for our train had been changed! We sprinted and literally only just made our train. My poor mother got stuck caught by the doors just as they were closing and her suitcase only just made it in. Thank you to the Italian ladies who wrestled with the doors on her behalf to pull her and her suitcase in! The regional trains were not air-conditioned and after several sprints, we were tired, hot and grumpy. Fortunately things improved from Milano Centrale. The lady at the ticket office kindly got us tickets on the next intercity train to Pavia. The train was spacious, air-conditioned and left on time from the advertised platform.

The start of our afternoon stress session

The first "wrong" regional train

Finally made it Milano Centrale!!!

Ah...nice intercity train oh how I love you

Pavia's duomo

The main square

We reached our rental apartment after a short 10-15 minutes from the station and was relieved to find it spacious and well appointed as per the website. Our host had kindly stocked the fridge with milk, juice, cold water, butter and spreads, as well as fruit. We were too traumatised to enjoy Pavia's offerings and chose to buy basic provisions for our 3 night stay instead. Take away kebabs for an in-apartment consumption made do for dinner and we called it a day!

PS apologies for crooked photos. I had had enough and couldn't care less about editing photos...

The small but complete kitchen

Bathroom no 1

Main bedroom

Second bedroom

Time for kebab!

Lake Como

Ah...Italy. There is nothing like being woken in the morning by the church bells. As our little albergo was right in the piazza, we heard it loud and clear! It was nice to be in a place where we speak the same coffee language and where even the simplest of lodgings will offer you choice coffee for breakfast. The offerings for breakfast was simple but fresh and tasty. Cold meat and cheese slices, croissant, bread rolls and spreads, as well as fresh fruit were more than sufficient to sustain us for the rest of our morning. 

Our hotel, Albergo del Sole. The blue shutters immediately above the entrance is our room!

Our room faced the square

The church just to the left of the hotel

The breakfast room

Cheese and cold meats for breakfast

Apricot croissants

We wandered through the very pretty Varenna to get to the ferry stop. Varenna is one of the middle lake towns of Lake Como. Our aim was to visit a few other towns on our €15 one day ticket. To get full value out of the ticket, you would have to make 4 different journeys as each individual leg would only set you back €4. The gentleman at the ferry ticket office was friendly and gave us a timetable. This is also available online if you wish to look at it ahead of time to plan your day. We were happy to report that our experience was that the ferries ran quite close to time. The only minor problem was at Bellagio where there was some confusion as they had several different pontoons which were separated. Otherwise, it was scenic and enjoyable travelling via ferry passing by picture perfect towns along the way. 

Our destination was Lenno with the sole purpose of visiting Villa del Balbianello, used for location shooting of several films including Casino Royale and Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. Once at Lenno, you have the choice of walking to the Villa or catching a taxi transfer. The latter will set you back €7 return. Be warned that it is only a small boat and that it only runs every 20 minutes. We patiently waited for it as we wanted to approach the Villa by the water. The gardens and the views from the property were stunning. As much as we would have loved to tour the Villa as well, we had many other towns to visit and the ferry schedule dictated that we had to keep moving. A walk through the township of Lenno brought us back to the ferry stop where we crossed the lake to the famous Bellagio, called the "Pearl of the Lake".  

We ended up seeing many many ducks and even swans on the lake

Perhaps this is why the public taps for water were shaped like this?

The first ferry service from Varenna of the day at the bright and early time of 0923...

Amazing views from the boat

Looking back at the township of Varenna

And passing by one pretty villa after another

At Lenno. To get to Villa del Balbianello, it is another 200m walk where you have to decide if you want to walk further or take the taxi transfer

Not a big boat!

The first glimpse of Villa del Balbianello

Seemingly endless paths of gardens

Gorgeous views of the Lake and its surrounds

One could just imagine being Queen Amidala looking out to the water...

Township of Lenno

We spotted a few of these on buildings

Haven't quite figured out what they were

I had to drag my mother away from Bellagio's shop lined cobble stone lanes up the hill so we can make our way to the lesser known Pescallo, a small fishing village right next to Bellagio. It was an ideal place to escape the crowds of Bellagio to have a relaxing lunch in a beautiful and peaceful setting. We dined at the restaurant attached to the Hotel Pergola. To be completely honest, you do pay for dining with the view and ambience. The food was alright but the price was a touch high compared to other places. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our hour of quiet before making it back up the hill to Bellagio where we perused the shops.

We hopped back on the ferry for Menaggio. By now, the thunderstorms that had been forcast loomed close. We barely had time to quickly walk around the town before the first drops started to fall. By the time we got ourselves back on the ferry back to Varenna, the skies opened up and it poured like no tomorrow. Despite having umbrellas, we were soaked right through down to socks and shoes. We opted to dine at the hotel's small restaurant and end our day. They had a decent choice for dinner and they were open to serve meals at 6pm! We were so grateful to have had temperatures in the low twenties and blue skies for most of the day.. Just happy that it didn't rain for the whole day as was predicted!

Can you spot my mother walking down....

and unfortunately we had to keep going down

until we finally reached the first glimpses of Pescallo

Our view from out table at lunch

Fish of the day

Spaghetti alle vongole

Tiramisu

Creme with mou sauce and amaretti (I don't know what it was exactly but it was yummy)

Bellagio

Menaggio

We just made it to the piazza before the first rain drops started to fall

It looked ominous even before we boarded the ferry

Dinner at the albergo