Lake Como and thoughts on Italy

Lake Como

After our adventure on the mountain railway we decided to drive back to Lake Como to explore the area further. We booked a hotel that had good reviews in the small town of Menaggio - on the western side of the lake called Hotel Garni Corona. It is family owned and run and quite simple but the setting is amazing. 
We intended to stay 2 nights and then move on to one of the other lakes. However when we saw our room and in particular the balcony looking out over the town square and then the lake we decided to stay for 4 nights. It was just lovely. We could read on the terrace or just watch the happenings.

Ferries travel regularly around the lake and have a hop on hop off ticket. There are beautiful small villages at regular intervals along the lake and all have cafes and some fine restaurants. The mountains, some with still a little snow, tower up behind the lake giving amazing vistas.

Always someone for me to look silly with!

One day we took the ferry to the town of Como at the southern end of the lake. It took 2 ½ hours from Menaggio. 

     A scene from Star Wars 2 we are reliably informed was taken on the terrace at this house above.

                                                        

This is George Clooney's house above. We were assured by a shopkeeper later that he is in residence currently too.

                There are some huge villas as well as some lovely smaller ones like these below.

We spent a few hours in Como where they still manufacture beautiful fabrics – mainly silk – and beautiful people - then caught a hydrofoil back to Menaggio.

The gardens on Lake Como are renowned and rightly so. We visited Villa Melzi in Bellagio and Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo. Both are very old and were developed with a lot of forethought.

This is an amazing citrus arbor. Lots of different citrus trees and the lemons were ripe.

 Most days it was quite hot and humid so it was pleasant to be near the water and relax.

It is a beautiful part of the world and we enjoyed taking it at an easier pace for a few days.

ITALY - thoughts on

We drove back to Milan and spent a night there before catching the train to Paris which takes about 7 ½ hours. We didn't get off the train to take any photos - didn't think it was wise!.

So a few thoughts on Italy before we spend the next few weeks mainly in France.

We only saw a few parts of Italy and were mainly in the more prosperous regions. Most of the locals we met were in the tourism industry. They were all very gracious and friendly and incredibly committed to what they are doing. Most places we stayed in were family run and the whole family worked very hard. 
In conversation most told us how difficult it is economically in Italy at present, how their standard of living has dropped and what a problem unemployment is. Some staff told us how lucky they were just to have employment and I suspect many were over qualified for what they were doing. 
Many mentioned that they feel Italy got a bad deal in joining the EU when they became tied to the Euro and could no longer float their currency independently. Some spoke of feeling like poor cousins to Germany. Given we met people in established businesses in reasonably prosperous areas I wonder how people in less prosperous areas are doing. 
A taxi driver, when we went from the car hire return to our hotel in Milan, reiterated all this with great feeling and emotion. I would have preferred he kept his hands on the steering wheel – at least some of the time – but we arrived intact. At the end he said laughingly Italians are too laid back to revolt so will just put up with things including bad and corrupt politicians.

As is widely known Italians cook simple ingredients well and their food and wine seems very important to them. Many shops close at lunchtime – around 12.30 and then reopen from 3.30 – 6.30. They seem to eat late at night with restaurants not filling until 8.30 – 9pm – too late for us! There were often children of all ages out with their parents at this time and they seemed full of life. I don’t know how the rest of the children’s day goes but can imagine how our grandchildren would not cope with these hours!

I really appreciate that most Italians look you in the eye when they are talking to you and listen well. They feel really present to what is being said.

If I had known the words for cold and hot in Italian earlier I would have got more hot milk with my coffees as I thought I’d asked for. Hot is “caldo” and cold is “freddo.” When asked if I wanted my “latte” (milk) caldo or freddo it seemed more likely to me that caldo would be hot than cold. I worked it out about the day before we left and really it wasn’t that important.

There is not one hotel we would not go back to again – except possibly the rather sterile one that we stayed in in Milan the last night chosen because of it’s proximity to the railway station. It was clean and OK but we generally prefer to stay in more local establishments. The most annoying thing about it was that they wanted to charge 17 Euro (about $25Aust.) per device for wifi for 24 hours. We have not been charged for internet access anywhere else so needless to say we did not take them up on this.

In summary I’ve felt very comfortable in Italy and find the people and lifestyle very much to my liking. I feel reluctant to leave and leave a part of me there – until next time.

And as you’ve seen they make great gelatis!

I want to acknowledge the great job that Bob has done driving around in our small manual rental cars on the right side of the road. Although Italian drivers have not been as bad as we remember from years ago many do still travel at speed and some of the roads we’ve been on have been very windy with multiple bikes, motorbikes and pedestrians and cars coming in unexpected places. He’s coped so well I wonder if he has some latent Italian blood even managing to do U turns with the best of them when required. We are needing to rely on each other a lot on this trip and it can be challenging at times. We’ve learnt that you need a map as well as google maps so that you have an idea of the general direction required. Our friend Sybil on google maps can get very confused at times especially on windy roads or near big buildings where the signals seem to get interfered with. However we’ve enjoyed the challenge and perfected our skills somewhat and Bob you’ve done really well.