We flew out of Paris late Friday night and made it to Lake Como by midnight. Lake Como is really a special place and somewhere that I should take a moment to describe. It's about an hour north of Milan and only a few miles from the Switzerland border. The lake is picture perfect as you can see and is where the mountains meet the flat Piemonte region where Milan is located.
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My family traveled there about 4 years ago and despite extensively traveling throughout Italy for 3 weeks we found it to be one of the most beautiful places we saw. It also has it's place in popular culture as it's been in several recent movies such as Star Wars II, Casino Royale, Ocean's Twelve and is the current home of George Clooney.
On Saturday, Ale, Jen and I got up early on Saturday morning and took a drive up the west side of the Lake. It's a beautiful stretch and I had trouble keeping my eyes on the road. Unlike last weekend, I ended up on the wrong side of the car lottery and was driving a small Fiat. Imagine the road as a windy, mountain road that wanders past the small towns and villas that surround the base of the lake. It was a little hazy in the morning, but warm with no wind. The sun started to burn off the haze as we drove north and the view across the lake started to come into focus.
We parked in the town of Cadenabbia and took the ferry across the lake to Bellagio. The town of Bellagio is the jewel of the lake and in a unique location as it sits on the tip of a peninsula that extends up the middle of the lake. While a bit touristy, we love this town and had fond memories of our last visit. We walked around for a bit and then took the ferry the rest of the way across the lake to the town of Varenna. It's a smaller, quieter town but also beautiful. The town is centered around a small marina and had a nice walkway along the water from one end to the other. I was glad that we left the car in Cadenabbia because I'm not even sure where I would park our tiny Fiat in these towns. They are both set up for pedestrians and anything larger than a Jetta would scrape both sides of the street.
We stopped for some hand-made gelato in Varenna before taking the ferry back to Bellagio. We had about 2 hours in Bellagio before we needed to catch the ferry back to our car in Cadenabbia. We haven't bought much since we've been in Paris so I guess we were on the lookout for some items. Bellagio really has some amazing shops though and the prices were much more reasonable than what we see in Paris. To say that we shopped in Bellagio would be an understatement. Instead, I would call it an economic stimulus package for the town. Ale joined in the fun and we left the town 2 hours later with all six arms supporting bags. On our list were leather loafers, a fitted dress shirt, matching tie, 4 handmade and painted plates (for display), a large handmade serving platter, a beautiful painted vase, a Murano glass necklace, matching glass earings and a nice painting of the town refecting on the lake. And that doesn't include Ale's purchases! In fact, we ran out of time as we both still had items on our lists. With the Fiat full, we headed back to the hotel to meet Chiara and her boyfriend for a great Italian dinner in a former castle. Tough life, I know.
The reason that Chiara did not join us for our Saturday adventure was because she was busy preparing the Easter feast for Sunday. That meant preparing by hand the pastas, pizzas and meat dishes that we were going to have the next day. We attended Easter mass on Sunday morning in the impressive dome church in the town of Como. Of course, it was in Italian so we did our best to follow along but spent more time looking at the church and the people as neither of us have much Italian language skills.
After church, we drove to Chiara's parent's home and met the family. Her mother, father, grandmother, brother, sister, boyfriend and dog were all there and warmly greeted us. Her father, brother, sister and boyfriend all speak good English. Her mother doesn't speak as much, but had been practicing and even brought a dictionary to the table to translate. And her grandmother, Nonna, didn't speak any and actually had never met Americans before! Her family was wonderful and we spent the next 5 hours (no typo) at the table talking and joking. We shared stories of our travels in each other's country, discussed current events, talked about our experiences in France and learned about some of the traditions behind the Italian Easter Sunday. It was quite a feast. The starting course was 2 pizza marghertias, 2 plates of full of salami and proscuitto, 2 plates of Italian cheeses, bread, and a good Italian Brunello wine. Then we moved into the first course of chicken ravioli and canneloni with a Barolo wine. Both pasta dishes were handmade and delicious. For the meat dish we had roasted pork and veal loin with some tasty balsamic vinegar sprinkled on top. For dessert, we had an almond paste baked into a cake (think cheesecake) and then another dry cake with an almond vanilla flavor. Of course, another wine - this time a sweet dessert wine. We finished the meal with a strong Italian expresso. I'm still full! At one point, when the topic turned to the tradition behind the dove shaped dry cake that is served for dessert, Chiara's family all looked to her father to explain. As he struggled for the precise story, Chiara's brother looked up the answer on the Italian version of wikipedia on his Iphone and clarified it for us all. Meanwhile, Nonna silently observed the whole scene with a baffled look. Here was a discussion on tradition, seamlessly moving between Italian and English, with people from a country that she's never been to, and the answer coming from some unknown device that apparently has no wires yet can provide an answer to why they've been eating cake in the shape of a dove for Easter their whole life.
We said our goodbyes and Buona Pasqua's with kisses on the cheek (3 to be exact and starting from the left) and then headed to Milan. The next morning we got up and headed to the famous Duomo in the heart of the city. Jen and I visited the Duomo 4 years ago and it was in the middle of a restoration. Scaffolding and sooty stone was all you could see. Since we were last there, they finished the renovation and the Duomo looks completely different. We took the stairs and walk around the roof to get a better view of the city. Looking down from the Duomo roof, you can see the half mile of shops that extend outside of the square. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately given our Bellagio splurge) most were closed on Monday. It probably didn't matter because Monday turned out to be a perfect day...about 75F and sunny with no wind. We had reservations at Santa Maria della Grazie where Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. Because of the extremely fragile nature of the fresco (or something close to), only a few visitors at a time are allowed in to see the piece. In fact, we had to go through a sealed double-door entry as even the humidity from our bodies can damage the work. It's an amazing work and has at least as much mystery around it as Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. We were only given 15 minutes to look at it before we had to leave to let the next group in. Despite the short time given to see it before the next group, reservations must be made literally months in advance. Luckily we had a well connected Italian friend to help us out! We spent the rest of the afternoon lying around in the park just a short walk from Santa Maria della Grazie. The weather was ideal and we figured our weekend had already been busy enough. Of course, we did make time for some afternoon ciocolato and pistacchi gelato on the walk to the park.
It was a great weekend and we were really happy to spend Easter with friends and Chiara's family. On the plane that night we were all tired, but thankful that the loose Italian airport security let us sneak through more than the maximum carry-ons!
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| Lake Como |
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1 comment:
How Amazing! My mouth is watering as you describe the meal. Life sounds very tough!
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