Friday 9 September 2011

Bellagio- La Citt`a Bellissima!

View taken from our balcony



Gustave Flaubert spoke of the sublime and graceful aspects of this lake when he stayed on the shores of Lake Como some time during the 1800’s. Although I don’t agree with a lot of things that Flaubert ever did or even said, I’m certainly in agreement with him from that aspect.




View from our balcony of private gardens belonging to the
Visconti Melzi

Bellagio is right on the point of Lake Como where it breaks into two “arms” and our hotel is built so that when we stand on the balcony, the water is underneath us.  From the bedroom, all we can see is water, the grape vine laden with grapes which forms the “ceiling” of the balcony and then the mountains on the other side that rise straight up out of the water which is so clear we can see the fish swimming in it.  It’s just sensational.   


Historically, Bellagio has an interesting story. It dates from very early Roman times.  Pliny the Elder built one of his two villas in Bellagio.  He called it “Tragoedia.”  The other he built in Lenno, another town on the lake, and called that villa, “Comoedia.”  At least he had a sense of humour!

However, not all was comedy here as there were many battles between the Goths and the Vandals, but even earlier, the Longobards were here (they were everywhere, because they are also part of the history of the Friuli Venezia Giulia area, “our” part of Italy. The Longobards at least tried to build up the defences and they transformed the buildings, making them more beautiful.

Bellagio’s personality is so cosmopolitan. We have heard all the European languages being spoken here and English in many accents.  The shopping is fabulous! Silk, leather, wood, ceramics; everything is locally made and each industry is a cottage one run by all members of the family, from grandparents to the current generation.  What is so nice is that everyone is so passionate about what they do and so proud of their family’s tradition in that form of artistry.  We have bought some lovely things.

The hotel has a very good restaurant, which is just as well, because the next eating place is in the town about 1 km away- no problem with that, but to get there, we have to climb on a 30 degree angle, Bill thinks- I’m sure it’s more like a 90 degree one- up some very steep steps to the top of the hill.  So we have reserved a table, right against the lake, for the nights we are here. Can’t get better than that. The only little worry is that when we look at the fish swimming below us, we keep wondering if it’s their mates we are eating as all the fish served in the restaurant comes out of the lake.



Not the stairs we walk up to the town,
but just one set of many.
Yesterday we took the ferry north to Colico, a trip of around 2 hours each way. After checking with our friend Google, we find that in total, there would be approximately 124 000 inhabitants around the entire lake.  Mind you, the lake is large.  It has a perimeter of 160 kms, a depth of 410m  and its surface area is 146km.  There you go!  That’s your geography lesson for today.
 The views from the ferry were amazing.  The mountains are so high- they form the border between Italy and Switzerland- the highest is around 2.5 000 m and they are steep. Villages are built in layers up the sides and churches are everywhere- at one time we counted 9 that we could see from the boat! They were in villages that are so close to each other yet each has its own church. I have photos of some of the churches.  They are built out on the absolute edge of a ledge on the side of the mountain. Often, they are in isolation, with no houses near them.  We wonder if perhaps they are or were monasteries.  Bill remarked this morning, when we were passing under one on the road, that if the good parishioners were to have more than a judicious glass or two they may never get home, because one would need all of one’s wits intact to negotiate the mountainside, standing up, not tumbling over.

There is a church on the green ledge half way up this photo.
I can enlarge it with Windows Picture Viewer but I can't keep it
enlarged. I need to take some lessons in this stuff!


Today, we decided to take a tootle into Switzerland. It’s just over a mountain or two. We couldn’t believe it when Kenny told us that we had a round trip of 90 kms and it would take us 3 hours!!!!  He was absolutely right, as he always is, I just wish Bill could handle that fact!  Anyway, off we went, on the car ferry acros the lake to Cadenabbia which took all of 15 minutes and was a hoot, because we sat in the car & I had turned Kenny on so that he could warm up (just keep your mind above your waist here, guys) and when he finally woke up he got the shock of his life and kept telling us to “turn around when possible!”



Mountains on the border of Italy and Switzerland


The best way to describe the driving is to say that out of the 90 minutes, 60 kms took 2 hours! The other 30 kms was on the autostrada so that was fine.  I so admire Bill.  He never loses his cool and the roads in these conditions are like a switchback railway with one lane width being negotiated by vehicles in both directions.  By the time we reached Lugano, we were in desperate need of caffeine.


Villages on the mountainside of Lago di Como


Lugano is a city of over 84 000 citizens.  Very big and right on the shores of Lake Lugano.  The inhabitants speak Italian in that area, as you would know, so we felt quite at home. If it hadn’t been for the police at the border coming and going, we would have thought we were still in Italy.

The towns, big and small, along the route all had their own personalities. Como is a walled city as is Lezzeno whose walls are like a spiral, going up the hillside. I wouldn’t let Bill look at the scenery, but I described it for him.  For a lot of the trip we were against a lake, either Lugano or Como. The water here in lakes and rivers is so green, Bill says because of the calcium in the water.

Tomorrow, we are going to do some more exploring, via the tronchetto (ferry). We didn’t get off it yesterday till we got to Colico, but tomorrow we will go from village to village and walk through each so that we can soak up the  atmosphere as every town has its own personality which you can’t get to know unless you take the time.

We’ll let you know what we find.



Lights on the lake at night time from our balcony

Some of the homes belonging to around100 000 inhabitants
of the villages surrounding Lake Como

Another view of the lights on the lake- abstract one this time.

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