Treating Ourselves at Lake Como

We were pretty excited about relaxing and enjoying the views in Lake Como, but first we had to get there. Immediately after crossing the border from Switzerland into Italy we noticed that the roads were a little rougher and a littler narrower. As we got to the city of Como and then drove along the shore of Lake Como to the town of Bellagio where we were staying, the roads became very windy and narrow — it often didn’t feel wide enough for cars coming the other way to get by, especially the fast driving commercial trucks and buses, and the road had houses and high rock walls on either side. It was a hold-your-breath-and-the-seat kind of ride.

Lake Como is shaped like a Y, and Bellagio is the town in the center of the split. Scott picked a hotel that was above the lake instead of down near the shore so that we would have even more spectacular views, and our room looked out over the long tail of the Y.

We were a little outside the town of Bellagio, but our hotel ran shuttles back and forth. We went into town for dinner the first night and ate at a restaurant called La Punta, “the point”, which was lakeside right at the center of the Y. We had been seeing grappa on a few menus, and this restaurant had a ton on their menu, so Scott ordered one at the end of dinner. The server brought out a 2-foot tall pouring contraption and let Scott pour his own glass, but he accidentally poured himself way too much, and everyone at the tables around us laughed. And then it turned out that Scott doesn’t even like grappa. :)

The next day we relaxed and spent time by the pool in the morning. For lunch, we walked to a café in Bellagio and then wandered around town and had gelato. We walked through a lovely botanic park / garden along the lake and then kept walking all the way back to our hotel. We got pretty hot on the walk, so we went back for more pool time at the hotel. That evening we hung out at our hotel, made salad for dinner, and played cards.

Our second full day we decided to take the ferry to Varenna, across one of the arms of the lake from Bellagio. We walked through the town there and headed up the hillside to a castle, which was part historical site, part aviary, and part art exhibit. We missed the scheduled falcon flying, but it was pretty to walk around and had beautiful views over the lake.

When we got back to our hotel, we spent more time by the pool and made our own dinner again. After it got dark, there was a crazy lightning storm over the lake that we could see from our room. For a while there was constant rolling thunder without any lightning that we could see, then we started to see constant bright flashes over the hills across the lake, and then we could see the wind and rain coming across the lake towards us. When it got to us, we had one of the strongest downpours I’ve ever experienced, and water flooded the walkways around the hotel. We even had a short power outage, and sitting in the dark watching the rain and lightning over the lake was pretty magical.

The next morning we left Bellagio and drove around the other side of Lake Como to make our way back into Switzerland. Luckily the road was a bit wider in that direction, plus it had more views over the lake, so it was a pleasant drive.