Varenna is a short ferry ride across Lake Como from Bellagio and is just as attractive. Colorful old buildings sit among lush gardens spilling down the mountain toward the lake. We caught a late-afternoon ferry over and were in a rush to hike to Castello di Vezio, so we hurried through the small, charming, tourist-laden […]
Tag Archives | Italy
Laglio
Laglio is a miniscule commune located at the foot of Mount Colmegnone. Its town center consists of a church, a post office and two convenience shops (both were closed), one of which displayed an old calendar of George Clooney in its window. Life is pretty quiet in this steep, sprawling area with less than 1,000 […]
Cernobbio
Cernobbio is another gem on Lake Como. It only has around 7,000 residents, so if you’re driving too quickly you’ll miss it. It’s worth stopping to see the small town center, church and the extravagant villas along the lake. The villas are left over from when Lombard nobility flocked here in the summer. Many of […]
Pescallo
In Bellagio, we followed a hilly path that runs along the side of Giardini di Villa Serbelloni, a sprawling garden, and ended up in Pescallo, a picturesque fishing town on the Lecco-side of the lake. The main population seemed to be cats, who had their own access to the town’s upper level.
Bellagio Sights
When you tire of exploring the many lakeside villages and hiking trails around Lake Como, make sure to walk around Bellagio and take in a few sights. You can’t miss Basilica di San Giacomo, whose tower prominently pokes above the red rooftops. The basilica dominates Piazza San Giacomo in the upper part of town. Constructed […]
Bellagio
My first glimpse of Bellagio was from the ideal approach: head-on, from the deck of the ferry from Cadenabbia, the village across the lake. It was love at first sight! The center of Bellagio, the Borgo, is full of brightly colored buildings, steep cobbled staircases, narrow stone lanes, delectable patisseries and sprawling gardens. Bellagio’s total […]
Lago di Como, or Lake Como
My new life goal is to figure out how to afford enough time to explore every rustic town, historic villa and wooded mountainside on majestic Lake Como. Amazingly, every section is picture-perfect. Lake Como is the least-developed, least-visited of the Lombard lakes. It is sprawling, shaped like an inverted Y. It measures about 160 km […]
Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano, or Saint Peter’s Basilica
If you want to beat the 20,000 other people who visit St. Peter’s daily, get there early! We arrived at around 8 a.m. and were delighted to walk right in. This massive structure is overwhelming, so best to view it as empty as possible. The cathedral stands on the site where St. Peter was allegedly […]
Forum Romano, Part III
Phew! Finishing up the Forum. Hopefully you are walking it with these posts in hand and are just as wowed as I was. Only three Corinthian columns remain from the Tempio di Castore e Polluce, built for the twin sons of Zeus and Leda to show gratitude for the victory in the Battle of Lake […]
Forum Romano, Part II
I like my posts to be bite-sized, and since my original Forum Romano one was anything but, I broke it into a few pieces. So, continuing on… Only the front portico remains from Tempio di Saturno (from 5th century B.C), at one time one of Rome’s most important temples. It was used as the state […]
