Bellagio on Lake Como has long been on my wish list of places to visit and now was that chance.  I have not been disappointed.

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Looking at the lovely homes and gardens from the vantage point of the ferry was a good introduction to this very special place.  Noting how steeply the land rises from the lake was a lesson still to be learned!

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No, this was not to be our hotel. Anywhere on the foreshore, let alone this majestic place, is very, very expensive. This village is home to many very rich people and that is reflected in the prices here.

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Even smaller hotels such as these are expensive. So I had booked a small apartment in the very centre of the old town, not on the waterfront.

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A welcome entrance to the village.

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Little did I realise when I booked our apartment that it would be at the top of a long, very long flight of cobble stone steps! Poor David did a Herculean job of getting our bags to the top! It was a task not for the faint hearted or the unfit.

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Finally, amidst this maze of steep alleyways, we found our appointed place above a small pizza restaurant. When I say above, it was…. Two more flights of steep steps above! Hot and weary we were also hungry after a six and a half hour journey to get here on two trains and a ferry.  The pizza for dinner was good!

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No mountain or lake view from our room on this occasion… Just the roof of the restaurant. But the room was comfortable and in this very hot weather, was thankfully air conditioned.  Not that we needed it for more than an initial cool down. Windows opened and the evening air soon dried our clothes. This was a good washing stop!

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There was to be no sleep in on Sunday morning! The church bells of San Giacomo (St James ) Basilica, peeled loud and long near our room. It is thought that the lower part of this bell tower was part of this area’s defence system long before the church was built.

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A feature of this church are the murals made of tiny glass tiles.  The one above the altar is quite horrific in the scene it depicts. It’s one of those story telling art works that strikes fear into the heart of the believer.

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This mosaic is much gentler in its message.

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The age of this church is clearly evident in the naive style of sculptures on the marble pulpit. This Basilica was built from the end of the 11th to the beginning of the 12th centuries. It was decreed a National monument of Italy in 1904.

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Everywhere you walk in this area there are flower boxes on the pebbled streets. These streets have been paved this way for hundreds of years and have obviously stood the test of time …. but they are hard on the feet!

One of the main means of income in this area, apart from tourism, is horticulture. In fact our street, Salita Mella, was once known as via dei Fiori, ie. flower street.  There are about thirty family horticultural businesses in the Bellagio area. They grow mostly outdoor plants which are sold all over Italy and Europe.

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Nothing was open at our uphill end of town so we started the day early (08.00) by walking down to the foreshore to find somewhere for breakfast.

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It seemed to be a never ending set of steps!

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The end came in sight. David waited patiently for me to make my way down.

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It was 08.00, and still too early for any cafe to be open here,too… Well it was Sunday!

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So we went for a stroll along the waterfront while the tables were being set. This one looked a bit posh for breakfast! We’d find something a little simpler! A bakery maybe.

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The arcade is just one long line of restaurants so we would find something.  This are gets extremely busy as the warm summer days bring more and more tourists to the village.

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In the early days of the village, the arcade was where the markets were held.  Now markets are held in tents further along the foreshore.

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We found a delightful bakery cum cafe for breakfast along with many of the locals. It was good to sit and listen as people greeted each other and enjoyed a morning chat over a coffee and croissant.  After breakfast we set off for a longer walk of exploration before deciding to take a ferry trip on the lake. At least ferries are not exorbitantly expensive.

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The ferry took us first to Varenna. We had been in Varenna the day before on our way to Bellagio.  That day’s journey had taken us by train on a most scenic route across the alps from Chur, in Switzerland, to Tirano in Italy. From there, we took an Italian train to Veranna and then a ferry to Bellagio.

The map shows the train line down to Varenna with the purple locator. It also shows the criss cross of ferries that go between Varenna to Bellagio ( red) and Menaggio ( black).

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From Varenna we went on to Menaggio on the other side of the lake…. Another charming village but the day was becoming extremely hot and it was time to go back to Bellagio.

And after that, I was finished exploring but, after a short siesta, David set off to walk in the opposite direction from our morning walk. I stayed in the cool to watch the final of the French Open Tennis and to download these photos to share with you.

Below are a few of the photos from David’s walk.

There are many yachts on moorings in front of the expensive lake side villas.

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The arched timber frame on a couple of these small fishing boats were a feature of this area. They can be covered in inclement weather.

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Higher up the hill was the well kept village cemetery with lots of live plants on graves.

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Further on were the small farm holdings and horticultural plots. We have been watching hay making from the train as we have travelled and these rolls are the finally result ready for animal feed for the winter.

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And this was his view of the waterfront as he walked hot and weary back to the cool of our room and a well earned cool beer.

 

More of our journey anon.

Jennie and David