Como - I like this place!

Blue! Crystal blue were the skies this morning when we opened the shades!!! Some strong wind must have blown through during the night to chase away the rain! Gloria! Gloria! How invigorating! Today is the day for our fast boat ride through the lake to the boat's end destination, Bellagio (once again). Lake Como is a very big; it takes one hour to reach Bellagio by water - maybe only 45 minutes non-stop but our fast boat made momentary stops at four small but incredibly lovely townships between Como and Bellagio. Any one of these surely has shops, sights and restaurants that anyone would like but we like most passengers went on to Bellagio. Funny, in all our travels so far on this trip, we have not met many fellow Americans. On our fast boat today, there were folks from North Carolina, Southern California and south Florida. And we were all sitting near one another.

The rain we sloshed through yesterday delivered snow to the higher Alps. With sun shining today, we could not only see the mountain tops but we could also see the snow delivered there while we were enduring the rain down below yesterday.

We have never, never, seen mountains so tall and so huge - not the Rockies, nor any California mountains, certainly not the Appalachians or the Great Smoky Mountains. The Alps are the definition of magnificent, grand, bewildering and amazing. We wonder, how on earth were they ever mapped, sized and traversed???

Our hydrofoil boat took us to Agegno, Lezzeno, Lenno, and Tremezzo before arriving at Bellagio. Each village had houses and villas built into the mountainsides that rose swiftly and steeply out of the lake. I simply cannot imagine living here. The views of the mountain lake, Lake Como, on one side of the house and the snow-capped Alps looming overhead on the other is almost too much to grasp —yet, back to reality, the walk or the drive to the nearest food store or the nearest doctor is unimaginable. Those who drive here drive the tiniest of cars; they jockey for the rare parking spaces and must vie for road space with oncoming traffic - those vehicles that meet a bus must simply stop, pull as far to the right as possible and pray nothing scrapes.

Bellagio was spectacular in the sunshine, just as we thought it might be. We walked the streets and climbed the alleyways lined with shops and small restaurants that wound up and down the hill. We got an eye-full of tempting wares but we bought nothing. When we reached lakeside again, we stopped at an outdoor restaurant and enjoyed soup, pizza and an Aperol Spritzer, otherwise known as Italian Spritzer. It is served with ice; it's deep orange colored and it is delicious!

We took the bus back to Como, got off on the far end of town and walked lakeside past the Alessandra Volta Museum and grand villas built in the 18th and 19th century, most of them visited by Napoleon a one time or another. Once owned by great families most of these magnificent homes are now municipal properties today and serve as offices for city leaders. Sad.

I like this place. I feel happy and amazed at what life might be like here. I do. But we are not staying. We've seen enough to feel ok about moving on to the next destination. Come on, Rapallo and Portofino - steep rocky hills, cliffs, Mediterranean Sea and all Stan and I have heard about but cannot comprehend tonight.