==========
1:00 - sitting in cute aperitivo et al with a glass of gavi wine after enjoying my light lunch of a mixed cheese/salami plate. Woke up around 7 something to a beautiful crisp day and got breakfast in the main square in one of the two bars where my b&b breakfast ticket is valid. Went to the ferry dock and bought my all day ticket for 15€. Pretty much everyone there was simply trying to figure out the ridiculously complicatd boat schedules, of which there are about five. One older American couple was arguing with each other because they spent 30€ on boat tickets they didn't want and duh they are nonrefundable. What the bitch of a wife wanted was to be on a completely different lake. What a moron.
Took the 9:20 am boat to villa Carlotta, which was mobbed with tour groups, mostly Italian interestingly enough. The boats move pretty fast, much faster than in Venice. Spent about an hour and a half there wandering through the house and enormous gardens. Some store was selling chocolate and coffee and were giving away samples.
Caught the boat to bellagio and wandered. Everything is basically uphill, no, upstairs, from the main drag. Bought a small hand painted wood tray to hang on the wall and wandered a bit more before getting lunch. Lunch was three salamis, two hams, and three cheeses (taleggio, Pecorino sardo, and a local cheese, since I know you were dying to know.).
5:00pm - back at the b&b for a rest after a long day. After lunch I had a dark chocolate/tiramisu gelato at del borgo in bellagio. Went into the church, which was dark and quite pretty and caught a boat to Lenno. No idea which boat it actually was of course.
Arrived at Lenno a little bit later and took a leisurely walk around. There is not much to see there. There's another villa but you walk uphill quite a ways to get there, and after seeing a couple I feel I'm a bit villa-ed out anyway. The church was unimpressive compared to the others.
Caught the 3:10pm boat back to Varenna, which took just under an hour. Got a good view of the castle above Varenna and heard someone talking about how steep and poorly-maintained the trail to get there is and decided no way will I be going there!!
10:00pm - Back after dinner on the main square at Albergo del Sole. Set out around 6. There was the coolest light over the lake through the clouds so I sat and snapped a ton of pictures before deciding where to eat. Had the local buckwheat pasta with potatoes and cheese and chicken with almonds. Too much food. Anyway. Dinner was good. Unfortinately gelateria Riva had already closed :(
Tomorrow I think I will try to go to Lugano Switzerland for the day. Not too confident in the bid to get there and back so we shall see!!
Final walking numbers: 18,202 steps, 48 flights of stairs, 7.24 miles.
No comments:
Post a Comment