Because we’re on Como for over three weeks, we’re finding it very relaxing, alternating active days with less active ones. Our excuse is that it’s still very hot – thirty degrees or more every day, so you don’t feel you have much energy to do very much.
On Tuesday however we decided to break out the bikes and cycle along the Lakeside path to Sorico, about 5km north of Golden Sheep. It’s a lovely ride along a path shared with pedestrians, but with spectacular view of the Lake all round.
When we got back we then walked into the centre of Domaso to get a ferry timetable and book Karol a hair appointment with a local stylist – her first since we left in March!
We learned that there was a fast ferry service that takes you to Como Town (at the bottom of the lake’s left leg) in about two hours, so on Wednesday morning we set off, walked the 2 km to the ferry terminal, and caught the hydrofoil mid morning.
Whilst all the seating was indoors, it was very comfortable and air conditioned so we spent a pleasant couple of hours admiring all the little towns and villages on the Lakeside that you otherwise wouldn’t see. We also played ‘try and spot Clooney’s villa’ but there were too many candidates to be sure which was the right one!
We landed at lunchtime, and proceeded to Tourist Information where we picked up a guide for a walking tour and followed it, taking in all the major and some minor sights en route. Highlights included the Cathedral, parts of which date back to 1396, and the Broletto, the ancient town hall built in 1215 which was modified in 1477 to make way for the construction of the cathedral.
One supposed gem which frankly isn’t, is in the Palazzo Terragni – the former Casa del Fascia, a rectangular concrete box of a building designed by Giuseppe Terragni and commissioned by the Fascist party in the 1930’s for its headquarters, which we didn’t think had any redeeming features whatsoever. More notable were the ancient Roman walls and mediaeval towers with are incredibly well preserved, and the beautiful piazzas.
Como is very proud of its famous son, Alessandro Volta, the physicist who invented the battery, and there are numerous tributes to him – piazzas, statues, cafes, restaurants and streets are named after him, many of which we visited.
We also walked along the lakeside to the Villa Olmo, built by the Odescalchi family (one of Como’s oldest noble families) on the site of an ancient Roman villa. I’m sure it is stunning at its finest, with beautiful gardens, but it was undergoing a bit of a facelift when we got there, and we were really hot and tired by this time so its charms were lost on us. However, we did pass Greta Scacchi’s grandad’s villa , and Villa Gallia, which was built in 1615, but was taken over by the Provincial Administration of Como on probably the most momentous date of the 20th Century, at least for the writer – pretty neat eh?
Whilst we were walking back into the town to revive ourselves with a couple of glasses of chilled white wine, we spotted a seaplane coming into land – in fact we’d passed the flying school where half a dozen small seaplanes were housed, and we spent a pleasant half hour watching them fly around the lake and then land in front of us.
We caught the last boat back at around 7.20 p.m. but became alarmed when it started to miss out some of the scheduled stops. Domaso was billed as the final stop at the top of the Lake, but we endured an anxious hour or so until I collared one of the uniformed attendants who confirmed that we would indeed be stopping at Domaso. And we did, so all was well.
Thursday was a ‘top up the tan’ day as it was once again very hot but we also took the time to do some forward planning. I think I’ve already mentioned that whilst we’ve been here we’ve made arrangements to visit Sixe and Hilde in Germany. They live in Ettlingen near Karlsruhe, just north of the Black Forest. We have booked a site near Ettlingen but are trying to work out which is the best route for us to get there. We need to leave northern Italy, drive through Switzerland, and then work our way up into southwest Germany. This would have been fine but as Sixe and Hilde’s son Tobias gets married on the 11 August, and we are not leaving lake Como until 6 August, it suits them better to see us around 6th. So we’ve decided to go for it and do the journey in one day – further than we are used to, but it will be a Sunday so fewer lorries on the road, and we can set off early. Our dilemma is – which way to get out of Italy? – we have to cross the Alps at some point, some roads have tunnels, some are mountain passes.
The density of campers on Golden Sheep has been increasing all the while we’ve been here, and this has started to get to Karol, so on Friday we decided to have another day away. One potential route over the Alps is to go via Lake Lugano, which is only about 45 minutes from where we’re staying, so we set off to check the route via Menaggio, then over the mountains to Porlezzo and on to Lugano. What we hadn’t realised is that this is a very busy road (a main route into Switzerland, duh!) in addition to being very steep, narrow and windy. Add to that the very fast, fearless/reckless Italian drivers and suffice to say we won’t be taking the caravan that way. We stayed in Switzerland all of half an hour, to buy our vignette to allow us to use the motorways next month and to take a few photos.
For one thing we didn’t have any Swiss francs to pay for parking, and we were both so wrung out we’d gone off the idea of looking round Lugano. The thing is, this is almost exactly what happened the last time we visited on our way home from honeymoon. The coach stopped at Lugano, and we didn’t have any money to buy anything on that occasion either. So, we’ve now been twice, and probably spent no more than 90 minutes there in total! We stopped on the way back for a really good coffee at a tiny cafe full of local Italians, and went back to Menaggio where we had a lovely leisurely lunch, followed by a walk by the lake and in the town.
On Saturday we got ourselves ensconced lakeside mid morning for more sunbathing when it was pretty quiet, but by late morning it was bedlam. A large group of around 19 clearly felt that this section of Lake was reserved for them, as they proceeded to plop themselves down right behind and alongside us, effectively hemming us in. There were umpteen kids running round, shouting, crying, dragging inflatables to the lake, shouting parents, smoking, drinking – it was all a far cry from what we wanted. I was determined they weren’t going to intimidate us, but we’d both had enough by lunchtime and moved back to the relative peace and quiet of the site.
We visited the little town of Colico on Saturday evening, on the opposite shore, and had pizza with the locals at a restaurant by the lake. We’ve not been out for many meals in this area so it was quite something to see how many people were out enjoying the evening – either just walking on the Lungolago (lakeside promenade) or stopping for something to eat, an ice cream or a drink. We’d had a lovely evening and had done some food shopping on the way out which we’d put in the cool bag in the car, so it was a bit disappointing to get back to the caravan to find that the electricity had tripped and the fridge switched off – as had the aircon, so the caravan was sweltering! We had to get the campsite out owners to switch the electricity back on twice, and for now the fridge is working on gas. We only have 6amps here and we think that the aircon was drawing too much power because it is so hot, although we have used it a few times here previously without any trouble.
On Sunday we walked to Sorico to find our next site – we are due to move there on Wednesday, and it is only 6km up the lake, but the access road didn’t look very inviting when we passed in the car, so we went to have a look.
It was very hot but its a lovely walk all along the lakeside, and I’m pleased to say that when we got to the site we were both very happy – the owners are so friendly and welcoming, they allowed us to choose a pitch in advance, and we even stayed for a drink to cool off for a while. We liked it so much we decided to move there a day earlier – I would have gone the next day but thunderstorms were forecast so we thought it better not to pack up in torrential rain. And it was torrential! It rained all night, with seemingly endless thunder and lightning – there were some very sad looking people staggering out of wet tents the following morning. We were working out that, apart from Portsmouth on our first day away, we’ve only seen rain three or four times since we set off – once in Lagos, a couple of times in Austria, one storm on Lake Garda, and now on Como. However, looking at the forecast for the coming week, it seems that change is on the way with lots more rain forecast. I never thought I’d say it, but I’m actually looking forward to it! Never happy eh?