We were surprised that we were able to park in a lot right next to the terminal where he would arrive. The lots are unattended. You just take a ticket to open the gate, then insert the ticket and a credit card in another machine in the terminal when you're about to leave. The paid ticket is magnetically coded to open the exit gate of the lot when you drive out. Very efficient!

After a light lunch at an airport snack bar, we waited at Randy's gate. His plane was 15minutes late (2 p.m.), but he didn't come out until 2:45. His plane from Washington to Frankfurt had been late, so the one bag he had checked through from Dulles Airport didn't make the connection. It was 3:15 when we left the airport and headed for Varenna on Lake Como. Traffic through the city of Lecco was unbelievably bad. After that the drive along the lake was beautiful, but by the time we got to Varenna, the drive that was supposed to take less than an hour had taken an hour and 45 minutes. We reached the hotel just after 5 p.m. where we received a friendly, first name greeting from Laura, the proprietress. Months before, Darrell had spoken to her on the phone and later exchanged e-mail with her.

Varenna

Lake Como, formed by a glacier and completely surrounded by mountains, is Italy's third largest lake (after Garda and Verbano). It is 50 kilometers (31 miles) long, and 4.4 kilometers(2.75 miles) at its widest point (Fiumelatte-Cadenabbia). The lake has a total shoreline of 170kilometers (106 miles). It is the deepest lake in Europe (410 meters). It has 36 streams flowing into it and one flowing out, the Adda River at Lecco, which eventually flows into the Po River. Varenna is very close to Lake Como's widest spot, and has excellent views across the lake to the north, south and east. 
 

The Olivedo & ferry landing

The Albergo Olivedo has an excellent location within Varenna, just across a narrow street from the lake and the ferry and boat docks for Varenna, and not far from the train station. Our's was a large corner room with views west across the lake and south along the shore of the town. Randy, just above us, had a smaller room with the same view to the west. He was exhausted from lack of sleep on the flight to Europe and rested while the two of us explored the town.

Passarella (on left of boats)

We strolled south along the passarella, a lovely concrete walkway that initially was suspended out over the water but eventually made its way onto the shore. Once we were below the main part of town, there were occasional openings between the buildings through which steep stairs led up into the town. Eventually we climbed one of these and soon found ourselves in Piazza San Giorgio, the main square. It seemed very crowded. Then we learned that it was because there was a "congresso" at each of the town's large villas. That also explained why we'd had such a problem making hotel reservations here, even though we'd called weeks in advance.

Our son, Dennis, and his wife, Diane, had stayed at the Olivedo on their honeymoon trip to Italy in 1996. He told us that the food there was the best they found in Italy, so we didn't mind that we were required to take half-pension (breakfast & dinner) to get the rooms. The food was absolutely outstanding, especially the pesto gnocchi. We had several choices for each of the three courses, and everything we tried during our four days there was terrific. Of course, Darrell was so hooked on the pesto gnocchi that he had it at three of the four dinners - and the other time he had gnocchi al ragu. But it really was the best gnocchi ever! The first night we had fish from the lake. Other nights we tried veal, steak and filet steak. All of it was great. It also turned out that taking the meals with the room was far less expensive than if we had paid for the same meals separately.

That first night we ate from 7:40 until 9 p.m., savoring every minute of it. Afterward we walked for a short time along the passarella, but the night air was very chilly. Back at the hotel, we talked with Randy in the sitting area outside our room until 10:30 before retiring. The night was surprisingly quiet. There had been so much hustle and bustle around the docks during the day, but it was now as quiet as a tomb.

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