Sunday, 11 September 2011

Un Giro Turistico

Back view of cemetery at Lezzeno on Lake Como. I will have to
come back to see it, along with the island cemetery in Venice
Bellagio from Lake Como
Bill at the southern end of Lake Como.
Funicular at Como. Hard to see but it's that line up the centre of the photo.
Museum in Como dedicated to the life and work of
Alessandro Volta of "battery" fame. He lived here.
However, as it was siesta time when we called, the place was shut!
Our time in the Lago di Como area has been spent very pleasantly  and we will be sad to leave tomorrow as this would really be one of the world’s most beautiful places.
As the lake is large, most things happen on the water around here and we spent the last few days “messing about in a boat” to quote those lovable Wind in the Willows characters, Ratty and Moley.
Yesterday,we visted Lenno, Tremezzo, Varenna and Mennagio.  All of them have their own personalities;  in the case of Lenno and Tremezzo we could have walked between them but they still had their own shops, their own churches and their own particular way of presenting themselves to the world .






We  are sure that most of Australia is in Europe at present and it was a hoot yesterday, when we were having lunch at Tremezzo, to hear Aussie tones from a couple at a nearby table.  They were about our age, and when the wife asked her husband how he was enjoying his meal, he answered in such a heartfelt fashion that  “the ham tasted like ham used to taste, 40 years ago!”  And he was right!


Not like any corner shop we'd seen before! Nothing in here
would be the price of anything in any usual corner shop!
This sums up the philosophy of the Italians re their way of life!

Village on the lake en route to Como


As we had been to Colico at the northern end of the lake we decided it would be interesting to see the southern end, so we took the hydrofoil to Como today.  As we suspected, the views along the way were just as beautiful and enchanting as the northern ones.  Bellagio is about in the middle, so we have now seen the  lake from top to bottom but have only boated up and down the western side, though we have driven along the eastern side. 

This afternoon, we took a ride around parts of the Bellagio area in a little blue train. One of the areas we went to was San Giovanni , the only island in the lake.  It’s only 600m long and was once covered in churches and houses. However, during wars in about the 12C, it was devastated and never returned to its former glory, although people live on it now and it has at least one restaurant, of course.

San Giovanni was not its original name, but apparently, in the medieval times, the good vintners of Bellagio became tired of the hailstorms that constantly ruined their crops and their livelihood so they took matters into their own hands and called on the services of San Giovanni, making a pilgrimage by boat to a church on the little island. Apparently the holy man was in a heavenly mood that day & heard their pleas for help and never since- get this, never since, has there been a hailstorm at Bellagio!
And there endeth the lesson- historical or religious- for today!

Ci vediamo a Sienna!






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