Listening to Perry Como

Saturday July 23 

Our hotel manager assured us that the overnight rain was finished, both in Milano and an hour north at Lake Como, so we set off for the tour bus in good spirits, skipping around the puddles.  The day was sunny and the company on the English language tour was truely international.  Fellow travelers were from Gibralter, Sweden, Dubai, Brazil, Japan... Only 6 from US, 2 Canada and 4 Australia.

Volta is the dome.
The taller on the right is a monument to WWII soldiers

 We learned that Como was home to three famous men.  Allesandro Volta, who is the namesake of electrical volts, lived and worked here. (He invented batteries.)  Citizens built a tower on the heights above the city and a temple on the edge of the lake shore in his honor.  You will meet the Plineys by the church.

Como docks

At Como we got off the bus and boarded the lake 'express', the Concordia, a paddlewheel boat built in 1926.  We spent 2 hours traveling along the western leg of Lake Lauria also known as Lake Como. 

waiting for the boat

WWII memorial and Volta tribute

The alps come right down to the lake so we enjoyed the mountain scenery. 

 

Villa Carlotta is on Carlotta's home screen. Wow here it is!

Besides the villages along the way, we saw George Cloony's villa, the summer palace of the King of Saudi Arabia, and Villa Carlotta.  Carlotta, the daughter of a Dutch queen, was given the villa as a wedding gift when Carlotta was wed.

They pointed out homes of designers and others that were in films or turned to museums.

Saudi family villa on right with large picture windows.





George Cluney's is the white villa on the right.  Later on the buss ride back, we passed just behind it on the road.

Clooney-road side view in a downpour :)

Bellagio

I have a new best friend in Bellagio, the landing spot for the boat trip.  We had time for lunch and shopping.  After we picniced on some good ham and cheese sandwiches, we started window shopping.  At one of the stores, we were admiring wood carvings in the window when Carla, the woman who owns the shop dashed over and started explaining the merchandise.  It's a good thing I had pretty much decided I wanted to buy or I might have had a broken arm.  She introduce her sister Beatrice who she said was in charge of the accounts.  They were real characters.  Carla not only walked us out of the shop, but part way down the block talking all the way.  [We should have gone here first, I think they would have fed us lunch.  OK, so I also bought angels carved by the same local artist.]

The lake was beautiful even with the lowering storm

It rained a little but held off as we took the ferry across to Tremezzo where we met the bus.  The driver said he was sure George C was in residence as he passed.  No more than we got on the buss there was a cloudburst.  As we drove back alone the narrow winding road they pointed out the cursed island, Carlotta Palace, Gucci, villa used on Star Wars  movie and Geroge's place.

Como Duomo

Pliney elder



Pliney younger

Back in the village of Como we visited the cathederal.  It is one of the few Roman Catholic churches  with statues of two non-Christians on either side of the front door. Another two favorite sons, Pliny the elder and Pliny the younger. 




It is too bad the day was so dark, even so the colors of the ceiling were beautiful.  This is the first catheral in Italy that I felt was well used by the parishioners and not just admired by tourists.

DJA

Gelatto raiting was 5+.  However, we did NOT try the bright blue Smurf flavor.

Still smiling - planning the next trip

We took many photos this vacation including a lot of other people's photos.  After we took a photo for the girls from Dubai, one of them took our picture.