Breakfast was another delicious treat - ham and cheese with ciabatta, more fresh apricots and saffron almond cake made without butter (the weight watchers version?). More rain! I think it has well and truly set in, so this changes my plans for today. There is a local church perched on the side of the cliff that is a highly recommended hike, but only in dry weather, so I caught a boat to varenna, another old lakeside village. It is so quaint, there is a small harbour and shelter for boats, and the villas are built from the waters edge then vertically up the cliff face. The atmosphere is slow and relaxed and it is alot less touristy than bellagio. I immediately stumbled across a coffee shop in a hollowed out cavern that has been exquisitely decorated and has great cakes - how could I not stop for an expresso and a biscotti!

I climbed my way to villa monastere, a monastery famous for it's gardens (but there is no access to the buildings). It was a gorgeous garden, the views the monks had were amazing! It was raining softly and it just added to the atmosphere. On the way back to the villages, I could smell delicious smells coming from a a restaurant so I stopped for lunch. It was an old formal dining room with a muralled roof, and formally dressed waiters. I had homemade grissini, trofie (twisted pasta) with pesto beans and potatoes, chianti, chocolate semifreddo (coconut gelato surrounded by chocolate nougart).

To counterbalance the food I caught the boat onwards to menaggio, a rather bland town further down on the river, but it was a decent 5 km hike back to my villa past some beautiful countryside and privately owned villas which was nice even in the rain. I ran into some people who were staying at the villa and we all decided to have dinner together at the restaurant. The chef Ty says the menu is not a democracy, he decides the meals and theme and you wait to see what comes. Dinner was... Prosecco, airdried braeseola (beef with olive oil and rocket), white bean and pasta soup, rolled stuffed herbed chicken breast with grean beans, layered chocolate and white custard with sponge buiscuits soaked in kirsh, all his grandmothers recipes. My dinner companions are British antique car enthusiasts and are driving through Italy with a convertible antique car, and are top gear fans - I have been lent the new book about the stig!