16-Jun-2018:: Exploring Lake Como & surrounds
Our plans today were to visit the Villa Balbianello in the morning and then the village of Varenna in the afternoon. It’s always good to have plans, but sometimes for whatever reason, they don’t work out.like the best laid plans of mice and men one could say!
We used the hotel shuttle bus to reach the port area by about 10am. When we bought the boat tickets, they told us that the next boat to Lenno was at 10:40; of course that’s Italiano time. The boat was about 15 minutes late, so we reached the port of Lenno after 11:15. It was a twenty five minute walk from the port area to the Villa entrance up hill and down . When we got there, we were advised that the next guided English tour was not till 12:45 and that it lasted about 90 minutes. There was no way our proposed plans would come together, as we had to be back in Bellagio by dinner time. Besides, even though the villa looked very promising, we had by now seen about half a dozen of them, complete with resplendent gardens; that and given the fact that the entry price was 20 euros (approximately $30) and also that we were not given any other option, we decided not to go ahead with the planned activity.
So we trudged back down to the boat terminal, most annoyed, or as the Italians would say scotchato however accepting that it was not going to happen. We thought we’d catch an early boat to Varenna, so we could spend a little more time there and have a good look at the place.
Varenna is a neat little spot, located to the north east of Bellagio, pretty placed much opposite Menaggio. It was originally established as a fishing village back in the eighth century, but has undergone a number of rebirths, after wars and conquests from opposing factions through the centuries. Today, it looks like it survives on tourism, as when we arrived, the place was overrun with day trippers, both local and international being a Saturday. We actually found it somewhat difficult to get a place for lunch at a restaurant.
Apart from the normal touristy attractions of coffee shops, restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops, there are 2 or 3 other important sites, the Villa Monastero, the hotel Villa Cipressi and the Castello De Vezio. According to our tourist information, the first 2 were supposed to be free entry, but when we arrived there, they were not, and the castle was an arduous 45 minute walk up steep hills, which we were not equipped for, in terms of footwear, so that was a no go as well. From our cursory look around Varenna, it gave the impression that there was a lot more to see around the surrounding mountains, hills and valleys, but that would have to wait for another time.
As there was not all that much in the town itself, we decided to head back to Bellagio on the 4:00pm boat and cut our losses. Some times plans don’t always work out the way you might think.
Back in Bellagio, the place was a throng of tourist activity. Even at 4:00pm, the bars, cafes and restaurants were full of day trippers. By about 6:30 things started to calm down, so we had a quick dinner and back to the hotel for some housekeeping stuff.
