Lake Como and Bellagio, Italy

Our last quick trip in Italy.  We hopped the train to MIlan, then another short train ride to Lake Como and then by ferry to Bellagio.

Lake Como is the third largest lake in the Italian Lake District after Garda and Maggiore.  

Lago di Como in Italian, is Italy's most popular lake and also its deepest. Lake Como is shaped like an inverted Y, with Como on the tip of the southwestern leg and Bilaggio at the point where the three legs meet.  The lake is surrounded by mountains and hills and dotted with beautiful villas and resort villages. 

We departed the train at Como and walked from the train station to the ferry that would transport us to Bellagio where we will stay.  On our way,  just down the steps from the station this sculpture of two hands.  "Monumento ai Caduti per Servicio"

the sculpture is dedicated to disabled service people.

The rough translation on the plaque goes like this: 

"One hand is actively serving the country in defense of institutional values.  The other hand is wounded in the line of duty".

One of the several squares in Como

boarding what we thought was the fast boat (one hour) to Bellagio and turned out to be the slow boat (two hours).  

As it turned out our mistake was the better choice.  The two hour ride was beautiful and we met some lovely people along the way.

At first just taking in the views

the villas

and villages we passed.  We stopped many times to pick up or drop off passengers along the way.

two gentlemen enjoying the sunshine and the view from a lakeside bench at one of our stops

snow capped alps in the background

another stop at a pictuesque village

gardens everywhere

every home and villa with perfectly manicured yards and gardens

One of the more famous villa's on the lake.  The Villa del Balbianello.  It was built in 1787 for a Cardinal on the site of a Franciscan Monesterry.  Its last owner was an Italian climber and explorer, Guido Monzino, the leader of the first Italian expedition to climb Mount Everest.  Upon his death in the 90's, he left the villa, gardens and many of the things he had accumulated on his explorations, to the National Trust of Italy and the villa and gardens can be visited.

this landscape and trees looked like sponges they were so dense and perfectly trimmed

Just a beautiful place

New friends, a mother/daughter, mom from Florida and daughter from New York City.  The young gentleman was from Quebec and traveling alone.  Note the wine glasses.  Another good reason to take the slow boat. 

selfie in which we were able to sit behind the ladies.  Best selfie, when one can distance oneself from the camera.

Arrival at Bellagio.  You can see our hotel, which is directly across the street behind the ferry terminal.  How convenient.

our ride

Hotel du Lac

After checking in we went in search of lunch 

and shared a salad and omelet at this gorgeous restaurant on the lake

After lunch we walked to the point looking for a restaurant the concierge had told us about for dinner.  It was quite windy and although lovely, we thought it might be too cold to sit out.  This point however is where the three legs of Lake Como meet, and it was beautiful.

Back in town, we wandered through the streets, all up hill.  The only flat street is the one in front of the hotel and along the lake front.

We went in one shop with really beautiful designer scarves.  We asked the proprietor why so much silk, and he explained that the silk is all produced in Como.  It is beautiful.

There were lots of shops with silk. In another shop, there were purses covered in silk.  They also had leather purses, silk flowy poncho like tops and Iphone covers with the same designs.

 Very unique. The designer was the father of the proprietor of the shop.  Pierangelo Masciadri.  All of his designs have meaning, many related to renaissance art, mythological scenes and symbols.  Gorgeous.

and so we shopped a little.  Oh my, the white ribbon

or the black.  Hmmmm!

Shopping and hill climbing is hard work, so we wandered back to the hotel for a coffee and a short rest before dinner.  We chose this one which was very good and another recommendation of the Concierge.

We had to climb the hill again. Ha.  Everything here is on a hill.

I had a lovely pasta with chicken and a tomato cream sauce

Miss Terry had perch which was also very good

As we wandered down the steps we saw this little shop that had beautifully painted bottles 

displayed.  

We went in and the proprietor told us that his father was the painter.  There were wine bottles, oil and vinegar bottles, all of which you could buy.  He also had various corks for wine, olive oil and vinegar which were painted as well.  He told us his father paints many of them during the winter when the tourists are pretty much gone from Bellagio.  The bottles were too big and heavy for our luggage, we settled for a couple of corks, but we enjoyed the story of the painting.

A place for a nightcap by the lake

we had a nice red wine

and enjoyed the view

until this ferry

came in and 

docked for the night right in front of our table.  Oh well it was getting nippy anyway.

so we strolled back to the hotel

Next morning after a leisurely breakfast, we bought our ferry tickets (the fast one this time), walked around 

town a bit more and shopped a little more 

one of the car ferries

The fast ferry is a hydrofoil and only takes an hour.

Not nearly as much fun as the slow boat.  No bar for coffee or wine either, so we are very glad we made the mistake of taking the slow one yesterday.  

back in Como, we walked around the town 

and found an open market 

with local crafts and such.  These were wooden trivets made of wood that is very aromatic when a hot pot is place on it.  

We stopped on one of the squares for lunch.  Not memorable.

walked past the cathedral and then headed 

back to the train station for the trip back to Bologna

Before we leave, a bit of Como silk history.  II found this article on Smithonian.com which explains it well.

"The silkworm is a snob," says Moritz Mantero. "He'll eat anything, but he produces silk only if he eats mulberry!" Mantero is the third-generation owner of Mantero Seta SpA, one of the largest silk manufacturers in Como, Italy. Situated three miles from the Swiss border in northern Italy's lake country, Como supplies silken goods to the fashion houses of New York City, Paris and nearby Milan. Although the backbreaking labor of cultivating the voracious and picky silkworms left Italy after World War II—returning to China, whence it had come centuries earlier—the finishing end of silk production stayed here and expanded. Today in Como and its surrounding foothills, there are 800 companies engaged in the silk and textile trade—manufacturing, printing, dyeing, designing, selling. And more than 23,000 Comaschi, as Como residents are called, work in the business. In 2007 they turned out some 4,400 tons of silk fabric. If you own a silk scarf, tie, blouse or dress by any big-name fashion house, from Armani to Zara, chances are the silk came from Como.

The city, which is also the tourist hub of Lake Como, one of Europe's deepest and most picturesque lakes, is to luxury silk what Reims is to Champagne and Modena to fancy sports cars. Since the manufacturing of silk for the mass-market end of the rag trade migrated largely to China in the past two decades, Como has concentrated on the high-end market, which means fast turnaround for two or three collections a year, sometimes even including final delivery directly to the boutiques of a client like Chanel. "That's the total service they expect," says Mantero of such world-famous designers as Versace, Prada and Ralph Lauren. China, he says, is too far away and too slow to meet the fast-changing demands and relatively small orders of luxury fashion houses.

Como became Italy's silk capital for two reasons, silk makers say. First, there was an ample supply of water from the lake and nearby alpine streams to the north. Second, there was widespread mulberry farming in the Po River Valley just to the south. Mulberry, native to Italy, was often planted as a field and property divider. This made the region a natural for the cultivation of silkworms.

For me, there's a third reason: the town's physical setting—a palm-lined fjord with an improbable Mediterranean climate and snowy ridgelines in the near distance—may be unmatched in the world. Even its man-made attractions, especially the grand 16th- to 19th-century villas that dot its shores, suggest that adding to the sum of beauty on earth is what is supposed to happen here. And it does—in the silk, in the architecture and in the lifestyles. "We call it la cultura del bello," says Tettamanti. "The culture of beauty."

And so, we leave Lake Como, a place I have always wanted see, and it did not disappoint.  

Only five more days until we leave for the States.