Knock, knock. Are you there George?

Thursday 21st June

Today we moved on to Lake Como. We visited here on our first visit to Europe in 2014 and decided it was worth another visit – and anyway it's on the way to the Dolomites in the north east of Italy. Nothing special along the way.

We arrived just after lunch at our hotel and were able to check in early so dropped our bags and headed in to Lecco to get some information on what to see and do. Dora took us to the old location of tourist info centre which was no longer there so we had a bit of a search through the town centre to find it. We nearly got caught out by these areas signed ZTL which means limited traffic zone. Definitely a no-go zone for us, and a huge fine if we are caught there. A lot of the really touristy places and big cities have these zones.

A very helpful lady at the tourist info office who suggested we do a taxi boat trip on the Lecco bay area today, then do the Lake Como cruise tomorrow, not Saturday when there would be lots more people. She gave us all the info we needed on how to do this without needing to drive.

This bridge is from the 1300s and still carries traffic.

From the taxi boat, looking back to the tower in Lecco.

A typical boat for the area. 

That bridge again.

Lecco.

Craggy mountain peaks above Lecco.
It was amazing to watch the clouds form over the mountains.

Saint Nicolas, patron saint of Lecco
- the gold statue stands in the Lecco harbour.

Friday 22nd June

Our hotel, B&B, is quite nice. It was a bit hard to find but after a couple of stops to ask directions, we are here. It is on the shore of one of the lakes that feeds out of Lake Como, lake Garlate. The owner doesn't speak any English, and our Italian is almost non-existent, but she is going out of her way to make sure we are getting good service. There is a young waiter in the evening and he speaks some English so organising dinner is not so difficult.

After our visit to the tourist information office yesterday we decided that today we would do a cruise on Lake Como visiting some of the towns on the lake shore. Last time we were here we drove from Como to Bellagio and I vowed and declared if I ever came back to Bellagio it would be by boat – the road scared 10 years off my life!

We took the train from Lecco to Varenna which was a 20 minute trip up the eastern side of the lake, and from Varenna we caught the boat. This was a hop on, hop off tour which allowed us to visit 4 or 5 towns on the lake. It was a beautiful day with enough of a breeze to make it not quite so hot. Our first stop was Bellagio where we wandered along the main street on the foreshore, then up and down the stairways that went back and up into the town. Bellagio is a very pretty town, with plenty of window shopping to be done. For the first time on our trip we came across many tour groups and lots of American and English, as well as German and Dutch – also a few Australian voices were heard.

The train 'platform' at Varenna. Pretty agricultural.

Odette had an outing - she likes cruising.

One of the stairways in Bellagio.
Some were full of shops, some restaurants,
and others just a means of getting from a to b.
All very pretty.

From Bellagio the boat went across to Villa Carlotta, and from there to the town of Lenno. It was gelati o'clock so we hopped off and wandered around Lenno. Another beautiful church to visit but the highlight was the church bells that put on a real performance at 3.30. I never tire of listening to the bells and later at dinner we also heard them from the churches near the hotel.

Villa Carlotta.

More lakeside villas.

There was a guy sandblast cleaning this area, right next to the kids swimming.
Hmm, don't think that would happen at home.

My next car!

The baptistery in the town of Lenno, dating back to the 11th century.

There were bells on each of the four sides of the bell tower.
Beautiful to hear them ring out their tune - it went on for 10 minutes. 

Don't know how it happened but we watched this crane lift the boat from under the water.

The town of Varenna as we returned to the harbour.

It was a long and tiring day and by the time we got back to the hotel it was dinner and an early night. We sat outside at dinner watching the clouds roll in across the top of the hills, and then as quickly, disappear. Quite amazing.

Eruption.

This cloud came up over the hill like a fluffy hat,
sat there a while, then just disappeared. 

Trying to catch the late afternoon light on the church steeple in centre of photo.

Italian pizzas – seems like they only come in one size – huge! Our phrase book says they are a one man size, and they are eaten with a knife and fork. I don't think so! We share one and that is more than enough for us. Also they don't overload them with toppings. One we have enjoyed is the ortolana (with eggplant, zucchini, peppers) and we add either ham or salami. Very nice. Another favourite is tiramisu – the hotel has a really nice one which we share for dessert.