We woke up to a cool overcast day, but at least it wasn't raining. Our cute little Fiat 500C sat parked all day while we took to the water. We asked for advice at the front desk of La Perla. The suggestion was to take the hotel shuttle down to the lake and then to the ferry from Tremazzo to to Lenno to Bellagio to Varena to Mennagio and back. She even highlighted the ferries we needed to be on to make it back for the final shuttle at 6PM. Since we visited Mennagio yesterday, we struck that from the list.
I probably should mention now that we could make neither heads nor tails of the ferry schedule. We were going to have to wing it. All we knew was that the shuttle would get us to the dock about 10 minutes before the ferry to Lenno.
Our first stop was going to be Villa del Balbianello, a location used in the 007 film Casino Royale. The woman at La Perla told us we'd get off the ferry, walk 10 minutes to the left and then approach a fork in the road. We'd have 3 choices. Turn right and walk 45 minutes to the villa, turn left and walk 20 minutes to the villa or take a 7-minute water tax to the villa at a cost of €8. Sounds easy enough. We decided early on that we'd take the 20 minute walk. No one mentioned hiking or mountain climbing. Boy, were we surprised. After much huffing and puffing taking well more than 20 minutes, we'd walked up, down, up, down (mostly up) and around the peninsula on which the villa sits. I wondered how several of the people on the ferry who looked clearly in worse shape than the two of us were faring. Once we got up top, we immediately decided we'd take the water taxi back around. It was 10:50 when we got to the ticket booth with a little more climb to go. We were assigned the 11:30 tour in English. I'd read that the gardens were nice so figured that would keep us occupied during the wait. Lou to another mini-hike down to the toilets while I took a few photos. I didn't find the gardens all that impressive. I did take a sneak peek at my Fitbit and was shocked/gladdened to see that I'd already gotten in over 12,000 steps and the equivalent of 21 flights of stairs - and it still wasn't even 11:30 in the morning!
The tour was interesting enough. It was more of a biography of billionaire explorer Guido Monzino. In addition to climbing Mount Everest and being part of a North Pole expedition, he was an avid collector. Again, interesting enough. I've always made it clear to anyone who's asked that I prefer a good history museum to a great art museum. This was 8 parts art museum to 2 parts history museum. In other words, our time, most notably the climbing and waiting time could have been better spent.
Thankfully the walk to the taxi which was €5 per person was right there at the end of the tour, no downhill hike required, and the boat was just getting to pull away from the dock as we approached. In less than 7 minutes we were back at the fork in the road and only had the 10-minute walk back to the ferry. And then a nearly 50- minute wait for the next ferry during which time our fellow water taxi passenger and I helped plan the Florida vacation for a young English couple who were also waiting for the ferry.
None of us had any idea of the destination of the next ferry, but at that point that was of little concern.
Eventually the ferry arrived, a few minutes late, and we hopped on. Next stop Bellagio. We've heard so many wonderful things about Bellagio so decided we'd eat lunch there, have a stroll around and take the ferry to Varena where we'd been assured that we'd feel like we stepped back in time.
As soon as I saw the masses of people waiting to get off the ferry in Bellagio, I got a bit concerned. I can handle crowds in NYC but anywhere else I'm just not all that interested. Lou's first glimpse of Bellagio had him exclaim, "I've been here!" Really? He'd poured over google maps (street view) while I researched hotels trying to determine what would be our Lake Como home. We saw the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, the Du Lac, the Excelsior Splendide as well as others we'd considered. The people, the noise, the chaos was just not our thing. We were ever so grateful to call La Perla in sleepy little Tremezzina our home.
Trying to escape the crowds, we walked away rom the docks. Yes, plural. That will be an important fact later on. We saw a sign for a restaurant called El Punto, away from the docks but still somehow overlooking the lake. We walked and walked. "There's a restaurant out here?" was the question running through our minds. Until we heard the noise. The place was packed. We opted to walk back to the docks and find a place near there so we could have a relatively fast lunch, make a quick stop for gelatoand then move on to Varena
Lunch was at Bar Pizzeria Carillon which was directly across from the car ferry. We wondered why anyone but a local would want to have a car in Bellagio. The traffic was insane. (Later this afternoon while looking at directions to our next overnight spot I saw that two suggested routes put us on that car ferry. Thanks but no thanks!) Lunch was good. As we were waiting to pay, we saw a large ferry, the one we'd arrived on, approaching the dock. We decided we'd have gelato elsewhere. We had had enough of Bellagio! Our tired legs and aching knees that had already logged over 17,000 steps and 26 flights of stairs (considerably more for Lou due to his trek to the toilets at Villa del Balbianello) rushed over to the massive disorganized queue for the ferry to... where? Hopefully Varena.
"Destination Tremezzo or Villa Carlotta?" asked the fellow at the ramp to the ferry. It was too late to turn back so we nodded our heads and walked onto the ferry. We hadn't explored Tremezzo so we figured we'd amble about and get some gelato. Wrong again. Other than the Grand Hotel Tremezzo which looks spectacular from the road and Villa Carlotta with its adjacent botanic garden, there's not much in Tremezzo. Certainly no gelaterias that we could see. There were a few snack bars that had limited dessert selections and that was nearly it. We stumbled upon a church from the 1600s and went in to have a look. The hotel has a 5pm shuttle which we hoped would have room for us. The English couple (whose next big vacation is Florida) were on the shuttle too. They told us that after half hour in Bellagio they'd had enough so had left to go on to Varena. Smart choice. Wish we'd done the same.
Lou took a nap while I played with my camera. I woke him at 6:45 because I couldn't remember if we'd made a dinner for 7 or 7:30 right here at La Perla. We got upstairs at about 7:05 and I said, "Sorry, I couldn't remember if we signed up for 7 or 7:30." The gentleman replied, "Not a problem since you remembered to come."
The menu was very limited but I was very happy with my choice of antipasti, first dish and dessert. I enjoyed my mystery dessert far more than I would have enjoyed gelato earlier.
A long day has come to an end. The alarm is set for 6:45 in the hope that I might see the total lunar eclipse which will be visible between 2:11AM and 7:22AM. I'm not optimistic as it's been overcast all day, the tops of the mountains have been covered with fog and clouds all day. And now, at 11:11PM the nearly full moon isn't at all visible in the sky.
Bueno notte e sogni d'oro. Goodnight and sweet dreams. I'm off to dream about the blood moon
Spotty internet means no photos at all tonight. Keep checking back. I'm sure you are really curious about what I had for lunch and dinner tonight.
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