Here's our pal, another Ape/Pinocchio below our window at Lake Como. I just had to throw that in at the beginning.
This is a pretty detailed map of the lake. We stayed in the Hotel Olivedo in Varenna. It's about in the middle on the east side of the lake.
This was our first view of the lake. It got better from here.
This is our hotel, right across the street from the ferry dock. If you click on the picture, you can see me on the balcony at the left on the 3rd (2nd European) floor. We arrived and parked with the cars in the foreground to register, but moved our car into the fenced area in the back for the duration of our stay.
We went downstairs to see if we could get something to eat. Even though it wasn't the "right" time, they made us some sandwiches and got us some drinks. We had dinner there later and had some of the best ravioli we have ever eaten. The house made tiramisu wasn't too shabby either.
I had to get some shots from the room. We were in a fabulous room with views two directions. This is through the side windows to the park below and beyond.
This is through the French doors on the front to the balcony and beyond.
This is on the balcony looking down the lake over the car ferry dock.
This is from the balcony after dinner.
And this is early the next morning.
This little place was right next door, but we never went there.
These shots are from the balcony getting as close as I could with my little camera.
This is looking down to the restaurant and the linen delivery. We had interesting waffle texture towels. I had read some complaints about them, but they were large and very absorbent. Trout and I both like our towels larger and thinner than most people, so they were perfect for us.
We started a walk around town and this is one place I could photography with the hills and narrow streets.
Mostly we saw this kind of view as we walked.
This was the paving for most of the ways we walked. The stones are not cemented in.
I loved this "beware of the dog" sign. It's a copy of the one on the floor of a villa in Pompeii.
Rather than going up and down into the town, an easier way to walk was on a cantilevered sidewalk over the lake.
The hydrangeas were doing some serious blooming along the way. Take that, Madonna!
This is where we parked our car. It's the 3rd one from the bottom. We wouldn't have any pictures of it except that Trout noticed these rented Alfa Romeos.
We both loved the stone house behind our hotel.
Picturesque, eh?
More hydrangeas.
The fishermen had very long poles.
You may recognize Varenna from this picture. A similar shot was on a recent cover of the National Geographic Catalog.
Trout had me take a picture of this poster. That's a wooden motorcycle.
We got an all day pass and went to all the stops it allowed around the lake -- twice. We only got off once, and it wasn't here in Bellagio. This is the priciest tourist town around the lake.
From what we saw from the water, this was my favorite town except for Varenna.
I loved this church. If you click on the picture you should be able to see people entering the church.
Now we're in open water heading for the next stop.
That's Tremezzo. There's a famous palace there. Not being much on palaces, we stayed on the boat, but it was one of the busiest stops.
We were getting a little hungry for lunch and considered stopping at Lenno, but were put off by all the tents you can see in the background. Tents mean some kind of market which means lots of people.
I loved this ultra-modern (probably 40s or 50s) house right on the water surrounded by significantly older buildings.
This church was lovely. I think I saw it in some movie.
This is the most popular Tremezzo stop. In this picture you can see the palace in the background, and the gobs of people waiting to get on the boat.
We ate lunch here in Menaggio. It was at the far end of the line and was much quieter. We found a small place off the main drag and had a great lunch.
It was popular enough and surrounded by enough wealthy folks to support a hovercraft operation. Supposedly, a number of movie stars have places in this area. We didn't see George Clooney anywhere on the lake, though. I guess he must've been working.
I continued to be taken by seeing fish in such clear water.
So here we go around again. This is Varenna from the water.
And this is a broader look at Bellagio.
I was surprised at the American flag being displayed here, but it is a tourist attention getting device, as are all the others from other countries.
This is Varenna from across the lake. The yellow hotel in the bottom middle is ours. We walked up to and down from the church in the upper middle right.
This is more of Tremezzo from the water.
Along with its fancy hotel.
We were on a foot passenger only ferry, but we did get pretty close to the car one.
This one was a real tourist operation. They served lunch on board. I don't know if they also went by the movie star homes.
This hotel is on the water in Bellagio. I liked the stencil work. It's similar to some done on the Cathedral here in Tucson.
And we finally got back home to Varenna and our hotel.
We walked along the lake down to the colorful part of the waterfront and had dinner in a highly recommended place there. We both thought the meal was mediocre, but Trout said they had the best dessert he'd had on the trip. It was a big bowl of fresh fruit and gelato.
There was a pretty good sunset view from there.
Our hotel did have the strangest shower set up of any on the trip. Most of the showers were just that, and very small. This bathroom had a tub with a shower curtain that was very interesting. We called it the "Circ de Soleil" shower.
First you need to understand that the tub is long but very narrow. We could hardly put both feet together and face either end. The bottom was round, like a tube round.
How this curtain worked was a real puzzle until Trout figured out that you had to lift the wall apparatus up, slide the wire supports into slots, and slide them back down again to lock it into position.
Then it encircled you and you didn't splash all over the place like I did the first time I used it.
We both agreed that Lake Como was more beautiful than we had imagined. Trout said the pictures don't do it justice. If you click on the link above, you will see more of them. It's a glacier fed lake that is about 400 meters deep with the bottom being about 200 meters below sea level.
We were there only 2 nights, but we could have stayed longer. This was one of the places where we were aware of a large number of families with young children visiting the area. It's not just a popular spot for retirees and backpacking students.
