Intro Part I (Elderhostel Tour) Part III (Villages & Friends) Part II Saturday, 2 October. After breakfast we had to move from our lovely second floor room to the top (fifth) floor, having been unable to reserve the larger room for the full four days. It was a long climb, but the new room (#31) wasn't bad at all. In fact, the bathroom was nicer than the one in our first room. The room had three windows, but two of them were at floor level and the other was six feet above the floor, so there wasn't much of a view unless you lay on the floor or stood on a chair. Randy had a terrible cold and decided he'd stay in his room and rest the whole day. It was heavily overcast again, not a promising day at all, but at least it wasn't raining. The two of us drove back to the Villa Monastero to see its gardens. The original building on this site was a Cistercian convent founded in the 1208 and closed in 1567. It was sold to a noble family and, in 1645, converted to a villa. The gardens were developed in the 1800s. They stretch for a long distance along the shore, all the way to the border of Fiumelatte, the next village to the south. For most of our walk, there were two, or even three levels of parallel paths, one above the other on the slope up from the shore. The gardens themselves were beautiful, punctuated with tall cypress trees, Roman-style statues, and fountains. But the views across the lake surpassed them all.
Afterwards we drove the short distance to the village of Fiumelatte ("Milk River"), to see the shortest river in Italy, which flows through its center. The water comes from natural springs in a cave a few hundred meters up the mountainside and rushes down the steep slope to the lake.
We then drove north along the eastern shore of Lake Como, arriving in the town of Bellano, where the Pioverna stream flows into the lake. We stopped at a small park adjacent to a pleasant little marina. We bought some fruit and grissini at a neighborhood alementari before heading north again.
We continued north through Piona, another town situated on a flat promontory. Unfortunately, none of our travel materials mentioned the Abbey of Piona, dating from the11thCentury, and we failed to see it. (Darrell only discovered it on the internet after our return home.) It was originally built by monks to provide travelers with refuge from pirates on the lake. It was virtually abandoned for two centuries before being restored in the early 1900s. Cistercian monks now own it and make some of their famous liqueurs there. Dorio was the next town. Cut off from the shore by the highway and the railroad tracks, the town has grown up the mountain side. We passed through Colico, the northernmost town on the east side of Lake Como. It has a fair amount of industry and seemed dirty and unattractive compared to the other lakeside towns we had seen. We took the superstrada back as far as Bellano, then the coast road to Varenna. As we entered the village, we turned left on the road going up the mountain. We thought we'd visit the14th Century Castle of Vezio, high above Varenna. According to legend, the Longobard Queen Theodolinda lived in the castle for some time. It was only recently restored and opened to the public. Although we knew it had just closed for the season, we wanted to see the outside and enjoy the view from there. Unfortunately, the road leading to it was closed. We could see why. It passed over a rickety wooden bridge with about every fourth plank missing from its floor.
We were surprised to see that the main road continued up the mountain, but we took it out of curiosity, thinking it would end in the next village. But we passed through one village after the other, getting higher and higher, looking for the ideal spot to take a picture of Varenna from above. We finally realized that we were far too high to get a good picture. In fact, we were way above the Castle of Vezio. Finally, we turned around and came down three-quarters of the way before taking the picture. As we got to the bottom, we were close to our hotel, so we stopped to see if Randy was interested in seeing the mountain road. He wasn't. By now it was 3:30. After doing a little packing for our morning departure, we spent two hours taking a final walk down the passarella, resting at different benches along the way. We got back to the hotel at 6:30 and visited with Randy for half an hour. The rest had helped him a lot, and he was feeling much better. We went down for our final dinner at the Olivedo at 7:30. After dinner we finished most of our packing before retiring. This was the end of our stay in Varenna. In the morning we would be off for Verona. |
