Intro Part I (Elderhostel Tour) Part III (Villages & Friends) Part II Friday, 1 October. We awoke the next morning to mostly sunny skies. After a leisurely breakfast, we took the 9:50 boat to Bellagio, with a brief stop at Mennagio on the way. Lake Como is shaped like a giant, upside down "Y" and is really two lakes. The stem of the "Y" and the west arm are called Lake Como, while the east arm is called Lake Lecco. Bellagio is situated at the tip of the point of land that separates the two arms of the "Y". From that spectacular location, there are splendid lake views in almost every direction. For this reason, Bellagio is known as "the Pearl of Lake Como" and has attracted the most wealthy residents and tourists for centuries.
We headed first for the tourist office to get maps and brochures. That turned out to be a fortunate choice because we saw a sign there about a two-hour walking tour of the park of Villa Serbelloni, not the hotel of that name but the real villa. The original villa was built in the16thCentury, though all of the present buildings were built in the next two centuries. Villa Serbelloni and its park are now owned by the Rockefeller Foundation. The tour was limited to 30 persons, and the tickets were to be handed out shortly. There were only a few people waiting and, not fully appreciating the demand for tickets, we thought we'd visit the nearby 12th Century Romanesque Basilica of San Giacomo before getting in line for the tickets. By the time we returned, there were about 25 people ahead of us in the line. Our charming guide for the tour was Ariana, a university student. (She seemed impressed that Darrell knew the origin of her name in Minoan mythology.) She led us up to the top of the hill dividing the promontory. There we had one spectacular view after another: first down Lake Como to the southwest past Villa Balbianello; then to the southeast over Villa Giulia toward Lake Lecco; then to the north past Varenna and toward the Alps. This walking tour is certainly the best possible way we could have found to enjoy Bellagio and Lake Como. And we stumbled on it just by luck!
It was after 1:00 when the tour ended, but we visited the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni before looking for a place to have lunch. The hotel was built right on the lake shore on land that was once part of the villa grounds. It is very elegant both inside and out. Back in the center of Bellagio, we climbed the steep stairs of a narrow side street to Il Grotto, where we each had a pasta. We had walked just a couple blocks down the lake front on the Como side when Randy said he wasn't feeling well and needed to go back to our hotel to rest. We caught the 3:05 ferry directly to Varenna and got some great photos as the boat approached.
After a short rest, the two of us walked into town, intending to see the gardens of both of Varenna's villas. It turned out that they were much larger than we had realized. We did manage to see the Villa Cipressi's gardens, but couldn't do the Villa Monastero before it closed at 5 p.m. We walked back through Varenna's main piazza, then down to the passarella, stopping at some of the shops along the way. Jane picked out a large 1,000 lire (55›) post card at one place, and even had the exact change. But the owner said, "Today it's free" and refused to accept payment. We sat on a bench near the ferry dock for half an hour and got back to our room after 6:30. We had another magnificent dinner at the Olivedo from 8:45 until 10:00, then took a short walk with Randy before calling it a day. |
