Today's goal was to see the famed Lake Como, and maybe even swim in it. Wearing our swim suits, we drove to Varenna. Luca had suggested we take a ferry from Lecco to Bellagio, then another ferry to Varenna, and then go to a beach at Bellano a little north of Varenna. He said there was a free beach right beside a pay beach.
The tunnels in Italy are extensive, and as we approached the Lakes, the tunnels increased. I like the fast, straight-shot that tunnels give you, and I can't remember if I said this already in another post, but with doing as much driving as we are doing, I'll take the faster route that tunnels give us over scenic but slow mountain roads. We decided to alter Luca's advice and drive to Varenna and see about taking a ferry to Bellagio. As we looked for a place to park, we saw a massive crowd of tourists at the ferry ticket stand. That did not make us excited to take a ferry. We found a t30 minute parking spot right on the street and grabbed three cappuccini. Then we moved the car to a parking garage that gave us more time to explore. We walked along the road and enjoyed the views of the lake. We checked out the tourist center (strangely, the young man working there wasn't sure about any free beaches in Bellano. "You might find a little stretch of beach that will be free, but it won't be like a beach. It will be just grass."). We explored that little corner of Varenna until there wasn't much more to do, so we took the "200 steps to free romantic view" and found a tiny rocky beach where some other tourists were swimming and sunbathing. We spent about an hour there, putting our feet in the cool waters of Lake Como. We had heard Lake Como, being an Alpine lake, was cold, but it wasn't even as cold as the springs in Florida. We estimated that it was about 75 degrees. I'm sure when you go deeper it gets very cold though.
We drove to Bellano, parked, and found a place to eat lunch, Bar Arrigoni. The most memorable thing about the meal was watching two older ladies work on eating two gigantic desserts. We asked the server what it was, and it was something like 8 scoops of gelato and a bunch of fresh fruit and whipped cream. And they each had one! Crazy.
We walked down to the public beach, which was very easy to find, and contrary to what the kid at the tourist stand said, it was very much a beach. It was rocky rather than soft sand, but it was as much of a beach as the private one beside it. And lots of locals were using it, which is a good sign. We all got in and enjoyed the cool water.
Bellano has a gorge with a waterfall so we drove to it (it was very close). It closed at 6 pm, and we got there at 5:40. They assured us that we'd have enough time to see it. Annoying that they charged us full price, but we saw it and it was very pretty.
We drove home and stopped at a market called MD for a cucumber and ice cream. They were closing and the lady seemed annoyed that we were buying stuff right at closing time.
At home, I made a simple dinner of cucumber and tomato salad, leftover tuna toss, beets, bufala mozzarella. And ice cream.
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