Como and more of Bellagio & Bellano

Today we headed off to the town of Como (the largest city on the lake) after a ferry trip over to Bellagio. The drive was about an hour of skin crawling, white knuckle near misses on roads wide enough for a fat guy on a Vespa.  On the way to Como, you are on the lake side of the road… on the way back, you ride inches away from razor sharp cliffs. I think Julie said “YOU’RE GOING TO HIT THE WALL!” about 18 times. Ha.

Como itself was a big city that is quite busy. We walked around for about an hour after grabbing lunch. I would say skip Como and stick to the smaller, more romantic towns. After making it back to Bellagio in one piece, we toured the gardens of Villa Melzi (which was once occupied by Italy’s Vice President). They were immaculate. The trees were massive and the lawns looked like a golf course. We wrapped up there and hopped the car ferry back to Bellano.  We arrived back at our hotel to find that a motorcycle crew had taken up all the parking spots and had to park at the top of yet another tiny road.

We had a couple of drinks outside on the patio overlooking the lake and watched the sun go down.  The German bikers were doing the same.  The little old lady that works in the evenings, brought us some fresh salami and breadsticks (not like pizza hut’s) and green olives.  Since neither of us like olives, they just sat there.  Ha. Julie has had a hard time finding something to mix with vodka since cranberry doesn’t exist here.  Finally she was able to find a delicious juice made of carrots and oranges.  YUM!

We then headed into the village of Bellano for dinner. We found ourselves in a perfectly authentic local family restaurant. We only spent 20 bucks on two giant pizzas and beers. Delicioso.

Back to the hotel where we watched The Men Who Stare at Goats and off to sleep.

Next up… drive to Austria, to find a hotel in Innsbruck!

It’s been nice seeing you Italy. Ciao.

Ciao Bella! Bellano, IT Day Two

Today we woke up to the rain. We decided to watch movies in bed for the morning but after our first movie it cleared up so we hopped in the car and headed to Varena to catch a ferry to Bellagio. The sun was out and the sky was blue with small clouds floating around the snow capped Alps off to the north.

Bellagio is a stunning place. It looks like you are walking around in a painting. Town is pretty busy with tourists and there are a ton of small shops with expensive carved statuettes. Most of the stuff here is designer tennis wear and stuff for old ladies but it is a very cool town none the less.

We wandered around and found a small restaurant to eat lunch at. We ordered capressi salad with buffalo mozzarella and pizza with Parma ham on top. Both were outta this world. Everything is much cheaper here in Italy and we are on to using Euros, no more Francs.

We walked around town for awhile and found a place we were looking for – the Cave wine tasting room. (I’ll add the proper name once we track down a reliable internet signal). Our host Roberto was passionate about his wine selection and walked us through a couple flights of local varietals. He also sliced some paper thin salami to top off slices of fresh bread. I think we have had some form of prosucitto with every meal so far, even breakfast. The Cave is exactly what it says it is. It is made up of three small catacomb-like rooms covered wall to wall with bottles and hams hanging from the ceiling. We were feeling pretty good after our tasting so off to get some gelatto and hike a bit more before catching the ferry back to Verana.

Once in Varana we walked to the center of town where we had dinner seated next to a russian prostitute and her client. Julie had Gnocci and I had the steak, and we polished off another bottle of red wine.

Back to the hotel to watch a movie and rest up for the next day. (I think we made it through the first 5 minutes)

Ciao!

On to Italy, Day One

Yesterday we packed up, checked out of the Alpen in Zermatt and boarded a train to Tasch where we left the car. We were headed to Italy, Lake Como. It was about a 4 hour drive that takes you through the Alps and into the foothills of northern Italy. The drive was great fun through the canyons of the Alps. There must have been 30 miles of tunnels, elevated roadways and waterfalls. It’s funny, on the Blue Ridge back home there is a famous half mile stretch of elevated roadway (viaduct) over the side of the mountain which is a tourist attraction. I thought it was impressive until yesterday. We drove for hours on massively engineered roads that make the Blue Ridge viaduct look like a puny on-ramp.

Once we crossed into Italy the roads got small, extraordinarily small, and wound around the edges of the mountains (Italy’s roads pretty much suck in general). It’s like a one lane street that two cars have to fit on. We now realize why they will not rent you a full size sedan (they call it a saloon) if you are driving in Italy. It just won’t fit.

We stopped in a small village for lunch. We had some simple but delicious sandwiches, Parma ham and salami on fresh bread and butter. Recharged, we hopped back in the car for the remaining part of the drive. It was strange that we were in Italy but they still use Swiss Francs there and have Swiss license plates. We were at least an hour past the welcome to Italy checkpoint.

We drove along Lake Lugano for about 30 minutes then cut over to Como. The GPS had us crossing Como to the east side via a dotted line. We were not sure if that was a tunnel or ferry or what. We arrived at a very small port and learned there was a car ferry.

We bought a ticket and grabbed a quick beer while we were waiting. Only minutes from Switzerland, you can tell the cultural differences…the people here are loud and animated! The ferry showed up faster than we thought and we ran to hop in the car and drive it onto the ferry. In the commotion we lost the ticket and the captain only spoke Italian. Oh Shit. We exchanged a few sentences in our native languages and when he could see he was getting nowhere he waved us on. We put the car in park and wound up finding the ticket. Phew. We were the first car on the bow, right on the edge so it looked like we were driving on the water. Cool.

Quick side note about traveling with a Garmin. We bought the euro map chip for about 120 bucks at Best Buy. It is amazing how accurate it is. We are driving through these small towns in the middle of nowhere with all these crazy roundabouts and one lane roads and the Garmin knows right where we are, even telling you which exit on the roundabout you need to take. I was expecting it to be helpful to have it but it has turned out to be priceless and a must have. Don’t leave home without it!

So we made it to the hotel in Bellano. This place is gorgeous. I found a few really great reviews on TripAdvisor.com and we decided to give it a shot. It’s probably the most beautiful hotel I’ve ever seen. It’s not huge, only 30 rooms and apartments. The property is perched on a cliff overlooking a marina with snow capped mountains across the lake. Our room is modern and the view out the window looks like a painting.

We opened the windows in our room and heard music coming from the marina. We decided to find it and hope that it was a restaurant. It was… but there wasn’t a single person there… besides the cooks and waiters. We had our own private table by the water and though ordering was also a challenge, the meal was superb. I had pasta with lobster and mushrooms in a cream sauce. Julie had grilled pork tenderloin with pasta salad. We still had room in our dessert tummies, so we ordered tiramisu and crème brulee after dinner. EXCELLENT!