Lago di Como

After a wonderful week in Switzerland, we headed to Italy. Due to landslides along our route, we had a few detours getting there. After a train ride, a bus ride, another train ride, and another bus ride, we finally arrived in Menaggio, Italy.

  The place where we were staying had insisted on picking us up from the bus stop, and we were given instructions to call when we arrived. This was a good thing, because we would never have found it. However, calling required that we wander around looking for a pay phone, try to break through the language barrier to figure out how to use the pay phone, and buy some gelato to break our newly acquired euros so that we could have change to use the pay phone. No complaints from me on this last bit! At least Italian is a little easier to decode than the German that had surrounded us in Switzerland.

We finally got a hold of our host, who met us at the bus stop to give us a ride up to our room. And when I say up, I do mean up. Around and around twisting, winding roads, we found ourselves getting farther and farther, higher and higher from town. Our kind host, Alessio, must have taken in our widening eyes (or was used to guests needing reassurance) and insisted that it really wasn't that far of a walk, and that you could cut straight through rather than enjoying all of the scenic twists and turns. I didn't really believe him. To prove his point he continued to gesture this way and that, pointing at obscure paths and hidden walkways that would take us right to town. 

I just hoped that Justin was taking it in because I had no idea what he was pointing to.

We finally arrived at our room, and it really was lovely. There was a beautiful garden out front and a wonderful view of the lake. We took a quick look around, dropped our bags, and bravely took up Alessio on his offer to drive us back down to town. Thankfully, we survived the tiny roads with cars zipping inches away from us around the dizzying turns and arrived at the bottom in one piece. We spent the rest of the day walking around the village and taking in the stone streets, aromatic flowers, and colorful buildings set against the backdrop of a smooth lake surrounded by blue mountains. It was wonderfully peaceful.

A little worried about finding our way back to our room in the dark, we headed that way shortly after dinner to make sure that we could find all of the right alleys and secret paths.

It was a beautiful walk, but it introduced us to a not-so-charming aspect of this little town: the stairs.

Now you may look at the picture above and think that this is an adorable walkway, and you would be right. But don't be deceived - after climbing up stairs of various heights, depths, and lengths, paired with steep, sloping streets for half an hour when the sun feels like it is actually setting your skin on fire and you aren't even sure you are going in the right direction, the paths get a little tiresome.

Thankfully, we found our way back to our room, where we collapsed into the closest chairs and made a mental note to take everything we would need for the following day with us when we left so that we didn't have to do this journey too many times. We got a good night's sleep and were ready to take on the day when we set out the following morning.

It was a beautiful day, and we made the hike back down to town breathing in the heavy scent of flowers and soaking in our mystical surroundings. We were planning to visit the Villa Balbianello in the nearby town of Lenno and stopped by a market to get some things for a picnic there later before boarding a ferry across the blue lake. 

Our ferry made several stops at the surrounding towns before we arrived in Lenno, giving us glimpses of the other lakeside villages along the way. They were charming little towns and Sunday markets were going on in many of them.

To get to the Villa, we had two choices. We could hire a boat to take us out there, or we could walk. We chose to walk, and hiked up a long, steep, but beautiful hill (are you catching a theme here?) until we arrived. We found a bench in the shade with a gorgeous view of the mountain-studded lake and enjoyed a picnic of fresh bread, fresh fruit, and whatever other goodies we had found at the market. 

We stayed at the villa soaking in the stunning views and wandering the grounds until it the afternoon heat sent us hiking back down the hill for some gelato in town. 

We finally headed back to Menaggio, where we meandered through the market stalls, looking at handcrafted jewelry, painted tiles, embroidered aprons, and all kinds of other marketplace treasures until it was time to eat. We enjoyed dinner at a sweet little outdoor cafe and sat by the lake just enjoying the serenity of the place until it was time to make the climb home. 

We were planning to spend the following day in the quaint town of Varenna, but the ferry workers must not have heard about our plans, because when we arrived at the dock we learned that there was a ferry strike. When the villages are all separated by a sprawling lake, this makes it difficult to get around! We ended up finding a bench and sitting by the water reading and journaling the morning away until the strike was lifted around 1:00. Thankful that it was short-lived, we decided to go ahead and make the journey to Varenna and we were so glad we did. 

Varenna was an adorable little town and oh-so-Italy. We ate a delicious lunch at a cafe right on the water looking out at gorgeous views and then walked around the quaint roads and peeked in the little shops. Clothing drying in the hot sun flapped above us in the breeze, ducklings chased after their mamas in the clear water, and men and women sat around chattering away in Italian and enjoying the day.

The cafe where we ate lunch

The air was filled with the fragrance of flowers blooming everywhere!

There is an ancient castle in Varenna, Castello di Vezio, and we decided to go explore it. We saw a sign pointing us in the right direction and scampered up the path, thinking we would be there in no time. We were wrong. It turned into another very long, very uphill walk, leading to exhaustion enhanced by the fact that the signs had ceased and we weren't entirely sure our trek was even leading us to the castle. 

We probably should have taken the cue from the sign that this wouldn't be just another leisurely stroll!

We were a big sweaty mess when we finally found it, but the views were worth the climb.  There were only a handful of other visitors there (which shouldn't have surprised us since we saw no one on the trail going up), and we enjoyed the quiet and peaceful views high above the city.

A unique thing about this castle is that they have a falconry and house falcons, hawks, and a giant owl. We got to see several of the birds up close.

The castle is in ruins, but there are parts that have been preserved, such as a a draw bridge and the castle turret, which we climbed up for some spectacular views. We really enjoyed the panoramic view of the lake, mountains, olive trees, and villages.

There are also bunkers below the castle that were used during World War I. It was dark, wet, and a little claustrophobic navigating through the tunnels, but interesting to explore them.

We really enjoyed the castle and eventually made the trek back down, treating ourselves to some gelato and walking around the town a little before catching a ferry back to Menaggio. We bought some fresh bread from the market on our way home to go with soup we would make for dinner that evening. We sat outside in the garden to eat, then did laundry and relaxed for the remainder of the evening.

The next morning, we caught the ferry back to Varenna, this time with our bags in tow. We made our way to the train station, where we would head to our next destination: the Cinque Terre.