LAKE COMO ...................George, where are you?
March 21, 22, 23
When I was young boy (don’t start yawning yet), my family moved from Woodside, Queens, New York to Port Washington, a small seaside town on Long Island. We (parents, 4 children) had been living in a 5 room apartment in a 5 story building. The Long Island home was a brand new split level across the street from Manhasset Bay, the bay was filled with fish, clams, lobster. Our view to the bay was virtually unobstructed. I was disappointed about the move. I missed the clanging of the subway trains, the constant arguments of our apartment house neighbors and the beating I used to get from the city kids.
On the first Sunday after we moved, we went to our parish church, Our Lady of Fatima. It was a predominantly Italian parish while our previous one in Woodside, St. Sebastian, was mostly Irish. We arrived a little late so we ended up standing in the back behind a row of seats. A gentleman, who was sitting on the aisle, partially turned around then stood and offered my mother his seat. He was Perry Como. When I have told this story in the past, the reactions have run the gamut from “It’s Impossible” to “Hot Diggity.”
In Cinque Terre before we left, we met Ashley, a North Carolinian who was studying business in Switzerland. He was traveling with his girlfriend, Heidi, and had just come from Lake Como. He and she had suggested that we go to Lake Como (as had Ann’s cousin, Jerry) and then to Lucern….good advice!
We took the train from Florence through Milan where we had an unexpected layover of two hours due to not making our connection…. which was in turn due to the fact that we had not properly prepared. Had we determined the final destination of our train we could have picked it out easily…instead we missed it as we searched for an information booth….lesson learned again. By the end of the 2 hours we had the Milan train station down pat and in future trips through it even helped some tourists. Our final destination at Lake Como was Varenna, which we had heard was a beautiful little town. The train ride was beautiful as we entered higher ground and could see snow capped mountains in the distance.
Varenna is a beautiful town carved into the mountainside above Lake Como.
The weather while we were here was always sunny and mild. We stayed in a 3 story hotel right on the lake with views to the other lakeside villages (Bellagio and George’s place) as well as constant, but pleasant, ferry activity. Our hotel rate included a cold breakfast. One morning,
we overslept and arrived for breakfast at 9:50 AM. Breakfast ends at 10AM. The waiter wouldn’t let us sit at a lakeside table….”only for dinner.” When Ann asked him to bring some cold mild (the milk there had been sitting out for 32 hours), he said, “fredo, not caldo.” Ann said, “not fredo, caldo.” It went back and forth but the waiter won out. It broke my heart. The proprietress, Laura, who was virtually smileless during the 3 days we were there, saw us in the breakfast area at 10:30 and her jaw dropped as if to say, “How dare they?” I smiled and waved.
There were concrete paths that went around the lake which made for beautiful walks.
However, if you wanted to go to the village proper, you had to walk up about 100 steps in narrow, pedestrian streets…we did eventually figure out the way the locals went which was much easier. One lady living there commented that everyone had good legs. Once to the top, the look back down the alley way was spectacular.
Ann had heard
that
George Clooney had a summer home here. She had envisioned that if he was to come to the lake, he would arrive by helicopter. On our second day here, a helicopter buzzed a home near our hotel and right away Ann knew that George was in town….we didn’t see him but she said she could feel his smile.
We took a boat ride to Bellagio, a village on the lake, and walked around for a while. Normally, the ferry service goes to 5 or 6 different villages
but because of the time of the year, it was only going to three. Bellagio is a cute town, more renown that Varenna, but I like the town we stayed in. All in all, a great stop.
March 21, 22, 23
When I was young boy (don’t start yawning yet), my family moved from Woodside, Queens, New York to Port Washington, a small seaside town on Long Island. We (parents, 4 children) had been living in a 5 room apartment in a 5 story building. The Long Island home was a brand new split level across the street from Manhasset Bay, the bay was filled with fish, clams, lobster. Our view to the bay was virtually unobstructed. I was disappointed about the move. I missed the clanging of the subway trains, the constant arguments of our apartment house neighbors and the beating I used to get from the city kids.On the first Sunday after we moved, we went to our parish church, Our Lady of Fatima. It was a predominantly Italian parish while our previous one in Woodside, St. Sebastian, was mostly Irish. We arrived a little late so we ended up standing in the back behind a row of seats. A gentleman, who was sitting on the aisle, partially turned around then stood and offered my mother his seat. He was Perry Como. When I have told this story in the past, the reactions have run the gamut from “It’s Impossible” to “Hot Diggity.”
In Cinque Terre before we left, we met Ashley, a North Carolinian who was studying business in Switzerland. He was traveling with his girlfriend, Heidi, and had just come from Lake Como. He and she had suggested that we go to Lake Como (as had Ann’s cousin, Jerry) and then to Lucern….good advice!
We took the train from Florence through Milan where we had an unexpected layover of two hours due to not making our connection…. which was in turn due to the fact that we had not properly prepared. Had we determined the final destination of our train we could have picked it out easily…instead we missed it as we searched for an information booth….lesson learned again. By the end of the 2 hours we had the Milan train station down pat and in future trips through it even helped some tourists. Our final destination at Lake Como was Varenna, which we had heard was a beautiful little town. The train ride was beautiful as we entered higher ground and could see snow capped mountains in the distance.
Varenna is a beautiful town carved into the mountainside above Lake Como.
The weather while we were here was always sunny and mild. We stayed in a 3 story hotel right on the lake with views to the other lakeside villages (Bellagio and George’s place) as well as constant, but pleasant, ferry activity. Our hotel rate included a cold breakfast. One morning,
we overslept and arrived for breakfast at 9:50 AM. Breakfast ends at 10AM. The waiter wouldn’t let us sit at a lakeside table….”only for dinner.” When Ann asked him to bring some cold mild (the milk there had been sitting out for 32 hours), he said, “fredo, not caldo.” Ann said, “not fredo, caldo.” It went back and forth but the waiter won out. It broke my heart. The proprietress, Laura, who was virtually smileless during the 3 days we were there, saw us in the breakfast area at 10:30 and her jaw dropped as if to say, “How dare they?” I smiled and waved.There were concrete paths that went around the lake which made for beautiful walks.
However, if you wanted to go to the village proper, you had to walk up about 100 steps in narrow, pedestrian streets…we did eventually figure out the way the locals went which was much easier. One lady living there commented that everyone had good legs. Once to the top, the look back down the alley way was spectacular.Ann had heard
that
George Clooney had a summer home here. She had envisioned that if he was to come to the lake, he would arrive by helicopter. On our second day here, a helicopter buzzed a home near our hotel and right away Ann knew that George was in town….we didn’t see him but she said she could feel his smile.We took a boat ride to Bellagio, a village on the lake, and walked around for a while. Normally, the ferry service goes to 5 or 6 different villages
but because of the time of the year, it was only going to three. Bellagio is a cute town, more renown that Varenna, but I like the town we stayed in. All in all, a great stop.
The snow covered mountains behind Gerard is where we are headed next....on to Lucern, Switzerland
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