Saturday, September 26, 2015

...or 26/09/2015 as they write it in Italy.

Even with being up from 2am until almost 4, we managed to have an awesome first full day of vacation. Breakfast overlooking Lake Como was a delight, but the second cup of coffee was more special. We met new friends for coffee in Menaggio. Helen and I met through a Foodie Photo group on Facebook and we just happened to be at Lake Como at the same time. Finding out beforehand that we'd both be here, giving us time to make plans, was ideal.

Breakfast al fresco at La Perla overlooking Lake Como

Helen Evans (All Year Foodie Photos on Facebook) and I meet for espresso

After un cafe, Luigi and I strolled around Menaggio for awhile.

Meeting place

Heard the bell tolling at noon

A souvenir and a drink!

 

An Asian nail salon even here!

From there, we headed south in search of the funicular that I'd seen from the road yesterday. Our Tomtom couldn't find it. We found the sign pointing to the "funivia" in a town called Argegno but... we couldn't figure out how to get there from here. So... we had lunch! I had another local specialty, mushroom cake, and Luigi had eggplant parmigiana. The eggplant parm was so light, quite unlike most of the dishes we get at home.

An Asian nail salon even here!

Frizzante for me, Naturalle for Luigi

Before lunch we had to figure out the parking system. We did not want to get a parking ticket.

Oh,mew have that on our windshield.

 

Our server explained to us that the funicular would start running at 2pm. That worked for us. I asked how to get there and if there was parking. "You'll see the church. Then if you go behind the yellow building, is free to park." We walked past the church, we saw A yellow building, but we were still faced with the problem of trying to figure out where to go. We stood around for about 10 minutes waiting to see where the funicular came up from. We thought we had it figured out so we walked back to the car and one wrong turn later, we passed by the funicular station. Alas, there were only 3 parking spots and they were all full. We drove on by.

We returned to the hotel for me to get my jacket. Yes, it's cold. 22*C. You figure it out!

Pretty enclosed lounge at La Perla

Our hotel has a bulletin board with suggestions of things to do and see. There was a Saturday market in a town called Porlezza which sits near Lake Lugano. I set the TomTom for the city centre and off we went. It was a nice curvy ride north (towards Switzerland). TomTom told us to turn right once we entered the town. Okay. We drove smack into a residential area - and a dead end to boot! After making a dicey k-turn, we spotted a guy eating lunch on the street. "Ask him!" I suggested. Wouldn't you know that fellow spoke no Italian! Strike two. Plan B. "Let's go look at Lake Lugano." Which we did. We parked, took a walk along the waterfront and stopped for a drink. It probably would have been a great spot to watch the sunset, but we wanted to stop at a supermarket in the way back and I wanted to get to Pizzeria Balognett (the pizzeria we'd tried to find on foot last night) in the daylight. I'd read on Trip Advisor that this is a farm-to-table kind of place and I wanted to see the gardens.

We'd seen two supermarkets on the way to Porlezza and stopped at the larger one. We wanted water bottles and Lou wanted fruit. We walked exert food aisle of the store and saw lots of interesting products. We bought water (frizzante), grapes, plums, peaches, prickly pears and anise tic tacs. I love a good foreign supermarket. So much fun.

TomTom wasn't familiar with the pizzeria as a point of interest but I had an address so we had no trouble getting there tonight. It's located in an old building and is literally surrounded by and covered with gardens. It's a 2-person operation and run very smoothly. Our most expensive meal to date, but the food, the set-up and talking to the woman who served us (who also prepares some of the food) made it worthwhile.

That ends our day. Internet is spotty so if you read this with no photos, come back later to check those out.

Buona notte.