Over the weekend, we took a ferry across the lake to the town of Bellano. It's just north of Varenna, and I think fewer tourists make it up that way, although in my opinion it has just as much to offer as some of the other towns on the lake.
As we disembarked from the ferry, we saw a colorful group of historic Fiats parked in the Piazza Grossi. Kevin noticed that the owners had carefully placed mats under each and every oil pan to catch any drips (apparently a common problem for classic Fiats).
The harborfront of Bellano is very noticeable from the ferry because of this huge sculpture La Stella di Bellano ("The Star of Bellano"). At night, it lights up like a firework-shaped lighthouse.
We also saw a few more of the small lucia workboats in the harbor. Prior to the 1840s these types of boats were just unromantically called "boats". Then 1840 a very popular Italian novel "The Betrothed" was published. In it, a character named Lucia made a daring escape in one of these boats and since then they've been called "Lucia".
We had an excellent pasta lunch at a busy trattoria -- pasta carbonara for Kevin, spaghetti alla vongole for me. It was very good, and they were very generous with the clams -- I counted well over two dozen.
The town of Bellano was quite charming; we enjoyed walking around and exploring. There is an incredibly beautiful and peaceful cemetery up on the hillside. From up here we had views of both the lake and the waterfall at the nearby Orrido.
The Orrido di Bellano ("Bellano Gorge") is the town's major tourist attraction. It's a natural gorge carved over the centuries by the Pioverna creek.
The town has built an elaborate series of walkways so that visitors can view the rushing water safely. They charge a very reasonable 5 Euro fee to visit the site.
During heavy rainfall a dangerous amount of water comes crashing through the canyon. There have been devastating floods here in past centuries (one wiped out an entire church back in the 1300s). I am not entirely sure but I imagine this big tube is there to divert some of the water in that case for safety reasons.
But on the far end, the tube makes a sharp descent which gave me the impression of the world's most abrupt waterslide (which is what I initially thought it was from a distance). There is no waterpark here -- I'm pretty sure swimming in the Orrido is not allowed. It was difficult to get a good photo of the water rushing dangerously through the slot canyon but I'm sure Kevin will include some shots of the whitewater in his video (coming soon).
We enjoyed our afternoon visit to this interesting town. We are finding that each town on the lake seems to have its own personality and character.
Over the weeks we've been here, we've also taken advantage of some of the public events put on by the town we are staying in, Menaggio. One Friday, there was a free concert in the square with a very talented guitarist, vocalist, and string quartet.
We found good seats for the concert at one of the popular cafes in the square, Cafe del Pess. A great spot to listen to music, people watch, and have an aperitivo.
The same weekend, the Wind Orchestra from nearby Loveno put on a great performance of music from John Williams, Queen, and Abba. These concerts seem to be attended and appreciated by both tourists and locals alike. The Corpo Musicale di Loveno gives several concerts a year and has been making music for 180 years!
If you are feeling "villa-ed out", that's understandable. We've visited a lot of them on this trip and are starting to get a little villa-ed out ourselves. I won't be offended if you decide to skip the rest of this post. But we have saved some of the best ones for last, and on Sunday we took the bus down to the Villa Carlotta in the town of Tremezzo.
Villa Carlotta is listed in all the guidebooks as a "must-see" on Lake Como. Since the 1700s it has been owned by a marquis, a count, a wealthy banking family, and a princess who gave the villa to her daughter Charlotte in 1847. In honor of Charlotte the name of the property was changed to Villa Carlotta. Charlotte did not get to enjoy it for very long as she died in 1855, but her husband lived into his late 80's and he held the house until his death in 1914. Since then a foundation has maintained the house, furnishings, and artworks as a museum and opened both the house and the gardens to the public.
I won't bore you with too many pictures of the rooms and decorations. It was worth a visit, especially if you like the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen who sculpted a frieze for the villa that depicts Alexander the Great entering Babylon and is considered his masterpiece. But whenever we see a big mirror (and there were several inside the villa), we try to snap a good selfie!
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