Ross and Michelle on Tour: Lake Como

With the non-existent summer drawing to an end in London - it was time for a dose of vitamin E before heading into Autumn. We arrived into Milan late on Friday night and with a slight sense of trepidation set off in our little rental, armed with TomTom, to the small village of Lezzeno on the shores of Lake Como in the north of Italy.

Apart from the obvious (the lake) Lake Como is probably best known for being host to George Clooney who has a house there. Ever since his arrival it has been a popular destination for woman to spend weekends Clooney spotting. Usually this activity is a woman only sport - but Michelle and Sel were kind enough to let Andrew and I tag along.

After a number of 'turn lefts', which were actually requests for me to 'turn right', we arrived at our destination. Despite the narrow winding roads which twist around the lakeside and through villages with old Italian houses forming the curb on either side of the road, a quick check revealed that we had managed to retain both wing mirrors - success!

Day 1 - on the set of Star Wars.............

We woke the next day - opened the curtains and stepped onto our small balcony. It looked across the lake which is surrounded by step mountains. It was a beautiful day, without a cloud in the sky, and we knew we were in for a great couple of days.

The view

As you know, we are of course huge sci-fi fanatics, so the other big draw card at Lake Como was Villa del Balbianello - which of course provided the backdrop of scenes in Star Wars Episode II. After a nice hard boiled egg (thanks Andrew), we ran to catch a boat across to Lenno, home to the villa. The vlla was built in 1787 by a Cardinal from Milan - he sounds like a bit of a dodgy guy, as he built a hidden passage from his dressing room and into the guest room.... hmm. Anyway - the villa changed hands a number of times - before its final owner, a famous Italian explorer purchased it. Following his death it was bequeathed to the State and it is now open to the public to explore its garden and tour the rooms of the villa, which are filled with furniture and collectibles he purchased at auction and on his travels. Although the prospect of looking around a garden didn't really light our fires before we arrived here, it was an interesting spot and garden and villa were pretty incredible.

Villa del Balbianello

After a short spell spent rehydrating with a cold beer in the sun, we again jumped on a boat - this time to Bellagio - the main tourist town on Lake Como. Bellagio is filled with cafes and restaurants, art and craft shops and the other sorts of things you would expect in such a place. It was fairly pretty and an easy place to kill a few hours wandering round.

Dinner on the balcony

Dinner was to be had at a restaurant near Bellagio. After a 20 minute walk we stumbled upon it - sitting on the water's edge in a quiet village it looked like the perfect spot for dinner. Unfortunately, while you could not fault the vista from the restaurant - the staff were probably the rudest we had ever encountered. We didn't let this get us down though and before long we had given up trying to befriend them and decided to enjoy and be bewildered by their complete lack of interest in making our time there enjoyable. The food was pretty good though - and we embraced our outdoor lakeside location by trying fish from the lake in all shapes and forms - big ones, small ones, salted, dried, fried, grilled... you name it.

Day two - The paddle-steamer

We awoke again to another beautiful day and set off across the lake again - this time on a genuine paddle-steamer. Andrew and I were clearly showing too much interest the the inner workings of the ship and before long we had been invited down a small ladder into the bowels of the ship and into the heart of the engine. It was scorching down there, with four jets of fire providing the heat to keep the boat steaming along. The crew can't see what is going on above, but the captain provides instructions via a brass listening funnel. After a few photos and time spent with our new friend, we rejoined the rest of the passengers and relayed our experience over a freshly brewed coffee. I guess this was the historic equivalent of being invited to sit with the captain on a 747 nowadays.

After a brief stop in another of the lakeside villages we headed to Varenna - in search of a picnic lunch. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as it turned out), we couldn't pull together a picnic - so ended up at a lakeside restaurant (Milug Bar?). We had a fantastic meal here, washed down with a glass of local white wine - Yum! Varenna was a really pretty little village - probably our favourite of the villages we visited.

Varenna

The afternoon was spent lazing on our sun deck down by the lake. The locals were wake boarding and skiing and it was very reminiscent of summer afternoons up at the lakes in the old days in NZ. While we didn't try our hand at skiing, we did manage a couple of swims in between sunbathing, and the water, although crisp on entry was beautiful once you were in. After a few drinks we enjoyed dinner at our hotel restaurant (again overlooking the lake).

The sun deck, with restaurant and hotel in background

Day 3 - a lakeside picnic

Our last day, so we set off for Milan but with a stop in Como - the main town of the lake. Unfortunately most of the shops were shut, but we did some window shopping and managed to find a supermarket to get some stuff for a lakeside picnic. We found a nice spot on a ledge by the lake and with the company of the nearby local drunks, enjoyed our snacks in the sun. We had a slight incident when the lake decided to join us (due to the wake of a passing boat), but fortunately the sun dried us out in no time!