Sunday September 25
Everyone should have a favorite place, or probably a few favorite places. One of my favorite places in all of Italy is Lago di Como. There isn’t anything in particular to do there, but that might be it’s beauty. You don’t have to do anything at all to enjoy this place. Just sit there and take in the lake, or walk it’s border on the perfect little promenade and look at the fantastic villas. The funicular that runs up to Brunate is the first one I ever took, and the one that started my love of them. Every time I’ve ever taken one it has lead somewhere great. Brunate is so small that it’s more like a neighborhood than a town, but what a perfect place to live.
Bellagio is called the “Pearl of Lake Como” so I figured it was worth a look. We took the ferry over, it stopped briefly at a place called Varenna, which I had never heard of, but it looked so nice that I’ve added it to my list of places I want to go to the next time around. Bellagio has these wonderful little pedestrian streets lined with shops and cafes. There was one place with about 15 whole chickens roasting in the rotisserie. I went in to find out how much they were, but the guy pointed to the bags that lined his counter. Each one had a name on it, and every single chicken was reserved, bummer. The Villa Melzi and it’s gardens are one of the big attractions of Bellagio. The views were very nice, but in the interest of honest reporting I will tell you that I didn’t think it was worth the price of admission.