Como Como Como Lake Como Comeleon

Ok, to appeal to you photo-philes and to compensate for my very wordy post last Friday, this one is FULL of BEAUTIFUL pictures :-)

Starting where we left off on that tragic Thursday… I had dinner with my mom and Bob! Ha. After a rough start to finding each other, I met them at a relatively fancy pizzeria kind of place called Frijenno Magnanno where they had been seated at a table in the corner (of course) and the waiter had apparently been giving them a hard time since they had arrived (due to said mishaps, they were there about 45 minutes before I arrived). They had ordered some wine but had waited on food. We got a couple of delicious appetizers, mozzarella and tomatoes and… the other one...

I think we decided it was a zucchini puree with little, tiny zucchini crisps. Then pizza and an awesomely still intact fish for dinner.

Despite the stress, it was really nice to welcome them to my [current] city!

Friday I still had to go into the office, so they explored Milan and toured the Duomo etc. until I came back to the city. We headed out to get a real aperitivo at a place called Dry Milano which I had only chosen because 1) it was relatively close to their hotel, 2) I knew for sure it had aperitivo, and 3) I was able to book a table online. Since I still can speak little to no Italian, calling to make a reservation just sounds like it would have far too high a risk of failure to be worth it. On the way there, we saw a FANTASTIC rainbow!

We ended up staying for dinner and definitely enjoyed some delicious food. I read online that the chef has a Michelin star, though 1) internet 2) might have been an old fact 3) apparently Michelin stars aren’t that impressive because I have had 3 or 4 people ask what that meant when I told them the place had a Michelin star chef. Sigh. (For your own education, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Guide#Stars)

We called it a night relatively early because Saturday morning we had an 8:20 train to take us to Varenna on Lake Como!!

A peak from the train

Once we arrived we set up at a coffee shop for a bit to gather our bearings and make a game plan.

We stayed at a “B&B” in a great spot not too far from the water and maybe a 10 minute walk into “downtown.” I put the B&B in quotes because it felt like it was just 2 bedrooms on the second floor of an office building, but it worked.

We did a bit of wandering and ogling at the beauty that is this lake, and of course, gelato.

We then hopped on a ferry to head to Bellagio which is the town on the point at the center of the lake. Absolutely stunning views.

We stayed over in Bellagio for a couple of hours, wandering, stopping for lunch, more ogling, and then headed back to Varenna. While Mom and Bob went back to the hotel to rest, I took the opportunity to do a mini solo adventure! From the water and in town you can see that up a big hill from the city there is an old castle! When I looked into it I found quickly that there were walking paths up to “Castello Vezio”, but it took a good 20 minutes of googling to find a description of where the path started. Once I found it, I was essentially geeking out and non-stop smiling for about 2 hours haha.

Steep path had me sweating but alllll smiles.

As soon as I was up in elevation at all the view was getting exponentially better.

I’m on the right track!

Neat door.

So I finally get to the top and walk through a part of the small town of Vezio and towards the castle. The path into the walled castle area is lined with wooden sculptures by a local artist.

And then you come through an opening in the wall, and the view is literally breathtaking. I had to stop in my tracks when I saw this….

There are also some really neat art pieces all over the garden within the walls where each year they take tourists that volunteer, cover them in gauze and plaster and make a ghostly looking figure. They were wonderful!

Then you walk past the olive trees towards the tower.

You can then climb to the top of the tower for the best view in Varenna! Goodness.

As I am making my way back down the hill, I see this sign

And think, “Old man punks with flat brimmed hats and canes and old ladies with babushkas this way? I’m in!”

I met back up with Mom and Bob, and of course we got round two of gelato before our actual boat tour of the lake!

We get on a little speedboat with 5 other tourists and the delightful guide Marco. Honestly, I can’t remember many of the facts, stories, and jokes he told us, but it was so neat to spend an hour driving around the lake and see just a small number of the towns and villas and churches with so much history on this lake.

Stories I remember

• Mussolini was killed next to a church in one area

• One villa can be rented for 20,000 Euro/night

• Scenes of Casino Royale were shot here

• A scene from Star Wars was shot here

• There was one old Roman church and a few other buildings that were noted as being 13th century or older

• There was a family feud over who had the better botanical garden

• And the last one that really made me chuckle was when he pointed out these structures up on the hill

And said they were “apartments you could rent forever… because it’s a cemetery”

After our boat tour we headed back in the direction of our hotel in search of dinner. While wandering I finally took a closer look at the beautiful church nearby

And when I “read” the sign I found out it was actually completed in the third century!!!

We ended up finding a little spot in that same square to grab dinner. The waitress was a little angry at the flood of Americans that were in the restaurant at the same time, but another guy who was either another waiter or maybe the owner of the restaurant, LOVED us and gave us free lemoncello :-)

We then hit the hay because mom was having a special night.

When we woke up, the hotel had a simple but nice breakfast for us in this tiny square room on the first floor. When I came down to join mom and bob, their first comment was, “Well, the coffee is warm.” So I think that says all I need to say on that.

We spent a little more time enjoying the streets of Varenna Sunday morning, mom and I got earrings from a local jewelry shop!, and then decided to actually get new train tickets to head back to Milan a bit earlier than planned. As I mentioned in my last post, I REALLY needed to do laundry, so…

We of course met back up for a final dinner where another waiter befriended Bob and provided round 2 of free lemoncello for the weekend. I call that a great success!

He kept saying, "Sir. Calm down. You're in Italy!"

I then realized I needed to do one more load of laundry, so mom joined me at the laundromat where we tried to take a picture but couldn’t stop being squinty-eyed so then we got weird.

We then gave sad goodbyes because they unfortunately had to head out early Monday morning as I went into the office. Why was I not headed back to Stockholm for Monday morning you ask? Well, let me tell you. Italy requires employers to do annual health screenings as preventative measures (I’m guessing it all goes back to the free healthcare thing). But instead of something like our biometric screenings that we do at work, they didn’t even weigh me or measure my height. I told them what I thought I weighed and when I couldn’t do my height conversion to centimeters fast enough, the woman made me stand up and she stood next to me to estimate my height. I’m sure some of this was due to my lack of Italian, but still. They also took vials of blood for who knows what testing, tested my hearing, made me blow into a thing that I was later told analyzes general lung health, tested my vision, and.. Best of all… made me bring in a sanitary container of my “first urine of the morning.”

(This was the empty container in a box.. don't worry)

Yes. What in the F^#%. Still have no idea what they are using it for, but I did it. I brought a container of my own pee into work in my purse Monday morning. This is absolutely the special kind of experience that I expected to have while living in Europe.

Anyway. After work I DID head to the airport and hopped on my planes back to Stockholm. Although I got in late, I got to enjoy a free wine while I sat and wrote and listened to great music on the plan, and then when I got to the hotel they gave me a small goody bag with a water and gummies because I am staying for a “long stay.” So that made me smile.

I am essentially here until next Friday, but found out today I need to do a day trip back to Milan next Monday for more legal logistical nonsense. Can’t get a break, but I guess I shouldn’t complain about having to hop between two European cities haha.

Have a great week, and I’ll see you soon!