Today, it's exactly 2 months since we left Boston. We feel like old travel hands, used to hand washing clothing and dealing with train and plane schedules and languages we barely understand.
We arrived 3 days ago. The journey here was one of those absurd comic disasters that’s great to retell but no fun at the time. Our plane from Berlin to Milan touched down on Wednesday night at 10:15 PM, an hour late. We knew we had to take a train from the airport to Milan, then another one to Como, at the foot of the lake, then a cable car to Brunate. I immediately call the hotel. No answer. I know that the front desk closes at 10. Ah oh. Did they leave us a key? Should we risk trying to get there, only to find a shut door? We decide to take the train to the half way station at Sarono. The train leaves at 11:30PM. We get to Sarono at 12:15 AM. The station is deserted. We decide to see if we can find a taxi to drive to Como, but first, we -- and our six pieces of luggage -- have to get out of the station. Not so easy.
Ah, there’s the elevator. We load in, travel down to the lower floor and get out.
No exit! just a corridor with stairs leading back up to the platforms...
to another elevator at the other end of the corridor. Ah, that must be it. So...drag the luggage down the corridor, load into the elevator ...
get out –on another platform. No exit. By now we’re very frustrated ... and dead tired.
Drag the luggage -- back to the elevator, go back down; no exit. Go back up. Finally, I walk to the end of the platform and find the exit. So now we’re on the street. No taxis. Wait --- a sign with a number to call. I call. Suddenly, the ringing on my phone gets hugely amplified on a speaker near the taxi stand and a yellow light on a pole starts flashing. But no one answers. Same thing happens when I try again. I give up, start cursing the stupid lack of signs and clear explanations. I leave Beth with the bags and head off to a taverna that’s still open. One waiter speaks English; he says no taxis will go to Como now – but wait, he has a friend who maybe… he makes calls. 10 minutes. Yes, a friend will drive us – leaving in half an hour. For a reduced rate of $105. Thanks, but no thanks, I say. Is there a hotel nearby? Yes, just 200 meters down the road, he says. I go back to Beth, we trundle with the luggage along cobble stone sidewalks, and get to the Hotel Principe. We get a room on the top/attic floor, very stuffy, weak air conditioning, so I open the ceiling window wide. Drop off to sleep by 1:30, and then, two hours later, I feel water drops falling on my face. I come to and discover that it’s raining onto my bed. After a few minutes of awkward struggling, I manage to close the window and fall back asleep. Around 9, we eat a groggy breakfast. It's raining too hard to walk our bags to the station 200 yards away, so we order a taxi and manage to make the 11AM train to Como. It’s pouring when we arrive in Como and we have to schlep our bags a quarter of a mile along bumpy sidewalks to the
entrance to the funicolare. Beautiful old building.
The cable car hauls us up the track as a spectacular view of the lake unfolds below us. At the top, we have to unload. "Beth, can you call Mayflower Movers?"
The last obstacle: we have to drag the luggage uphill four blocks cobblestone streets to the hotel, Albergo Vista Lago: view of the lake.
It's delightful, with a small balcony that's flooded with sun and offers a glimpse of the lake hundreds of meters below. Beth camps out there for the rest of our stay.
Thursday. Afternoon sleep. Rainy. We eat a lovely dinner at the hotel restaurant, cooked by Chef Gabriella. We meet David and Lucy Hayes, vacationing from southwest England. Mid-fifites. She designs and makes custom wedding veils. He’s a colonel in the British Army, the commander of the famous Gurkha regiment made up of Nepali volunteers. That's him -- the non-Nepali -- in his uniform, which he didn't wear, of course, in Italy.
We had great conversations with them for many later nights. They helped us get going on the hiking trails that begin in the village.
Friday, great hike up to the summit of Mote Bellato. Amazing views.
Saturday: Cruise two hours and twenty minutes to village of Bellagio. Lunch, walks, views. Speed boat back.
Monday, August 9, we're going to have to head off to San Sebastian Spain. We will do so with mixed feelings. Our Como visit was delightful. We could have stayed much longer.
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