Orrido di Bellano and Villa Carlotta

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! 

Bellagio and Villa Melzi

Bellagio is probably the most famous town on Lake Como, after all there is a fancy hotel in Las Vegas named after it. It was a major holiday destination even in Roman times; it is believed that Pliny the Younger had a vacation villa or two here in the 1st century AD. But the big crowds really began coming here in the 1800s, when the wealthy aristocrats of Europe began visiting the Italian Lakes as part of the European Grand Tour. Fashionable hotels were built, as well as many of the private villas. 

But nowadays, I think maybe Bellagio is a victim of its own popularity. The town is still stately and elegant, but tourist crowds throng the narrow alleyways, restaurants, cafes and shops. I mean, there are tourists in every village on the lake, it's to be expected, but in other towns it still feels like actual Italian people live there most of the time. Bellagio feels maybe a bit more tourist-centric, especially right in the center of the historic old town. This is a photo we took of the Serbelloni steps (Salita Serbelloni) -- and at first glance it doesn't look too overcrowded....

...until you see a photo of the people elbowing each other out of the way to take the perfect photo looking down the famous steps. Meanwhile, I'm just trying to finish my takeout lunch amid the chaos. Weirdly, the benches seem to face the wrong way -- you'd think they'd face the view looking down over the steps. Our photo above doesn't do the Salita Serbelloni justice, but in other images online you can see why the location is so popular -- it's really picturesque with the iron lamps, shops, and flowering plants. But our walking guidemap noted that locals have nicknamed this spot "the ditch" because in medieval times it actually was a ditch.

The church square, Piazza San Giacomo ("St. James Square"), is the center of the upper part of town. It's lined with shops and pubs, and on the far side of the square is a medieval defense tower next to the park-like garden of the Villa Serbelloni. The garden is open to the public if you reserve a guided tour, but the villa itself is not open for visitors (it's owned by the Rockefeller Foundation).

On the other side of the square is the Basilica di San Giacomo, built between the years 1075 and 1125. It has been restored many times over the ensuing centuries, and is now an Italian national monument.

We kept walking down through the town and into the pretty municipal park, past the interesting gothic Anglican church that was converted into private apartments in the 1950s. Imagine living there! I got curious so I looked it up online and saw a (possibly outdated) listing with photos of the interior and a list price of 1.9 million Euros. I guess that's the price you pay to live in the elegant town of Bellagio.

Just a little way down the lakeshore is the Villa Melzi. This historic villa was built in 1813 for Francesco Melzi D'Eril who was Vice President of the Italian Republic under Napoleon (a position Melzi held until Napoleon decided "to heck with the republic -- I don't wanna just be President, I am now King of Italy". Such an ego!).  The villa itself is a private residence, still held by descendents of the Melzi D'Eril/Gallerati Scotti family. While you can't tour the house, the gardens are very pretty and include a beautiful Moorish pavillion with sculptures and views of the lake.

There's also a small museum that highlights the family history and has several really well-preserved Renaissance frescoes on display. 

The English-style garden has some really spectacular plants and trees. Visiting in the autumn means that we missed the springtime blooms but instead we get to see the fall colors on the trees.

From the southern edge of the gardens you can see the neighbor's house, Villa Gerli. We've noticed that for many of these villas there's not a lot of privacy from the neighbors and the looky-loos touring the lake by boat. I guess if you're wealthy and really want privacy you don't buy a big ol' villa right on Lake Como.

Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to do an additional 2-hour self-guided walking tour called "The Hamlets of the Lakeside of Bellagio". This was definitely more off the beaten path and we found ourselves miles away from the tourist crowds.

The small fishing village of Loppia has a postage stamp-sized harbor where we saw a beautiful example of a larian gondola (also called a Lucia). This traditional wooden workboat was used for fishing or to transport goods up and down the lake and could be powered by oar or sail.

We were about halfway through the walk when we arrived at the fishing hamlet of San Giovanni. We sat down just in front of the church (Chiesa de San Giovanni) to consult the map and see where to go next. There were no other people in sight except a lively group of Italians having drinks and a picnic by the small port. They had a stereo going and I had to smile to myself when I heard Chubby Checker singing the chorus of "Let's Twist". One of the ladies saw me smile and danced her way over to us -- before I knew it we were invited to the dance party. She asked where we were from and wanted to know what state. "Arizona!" she shouted to the others, "Applauso!" and everybody clapped. I asked her name ("Antonella") and we introduced ourselves to the group. They looked like they'd been there a while -- they had a picnic all set up with a portable bar of drinks and aperitivos. One gentleman handed Kevin a glass of prosecco and we danced with them for a while in the sunshine before we headed off to continue our walk. I still don't know what they were celebrating at 11 am on a Thursday but whatever it was we were happy to be a part of it.

The rest of our walk was uneventful in comparison, but it was good exercise as it took us all the way over and up the other side of the Bellagio peninsula before bringing us back into town. Having seen a little bit of the surrounding area, I can say that Bellagio still has a lot of charm if you can get away from the crowds.

Hotel Loveno Pasta-Making Class

One of our best experiences so far on this trip has been learning how to prepare fresh pasta from scratch.

But before I describe our pasta-making class, I should talk about how unseasonably warm it has been here this past week. We were expecting cool autumn mid-60/mid-70 temperatures for our September stay. But instead the temperatures have been getting up into the mid-80s some days. With the humidity, we get pretty sweaty while hiking or walking. So yesterday (the hottest day so far) we took a day off from exploring and instead headed to the beach so that we could cool off in the lake.

There are several free public beach areas in Menaggio and other towns along the lake. Just bring your own towel, a bathing suit, and some sturdy water shoes (the beaches here are rocky, not sandy -- ouch!). But Menaggio has a really nice Lido Beach Club, where for a small fee you can rent sunchairs and umbrellas, so we headed over that way instead. We swam a bit, read a bit, and had lunch and drinks at the little kiosk bar. It was a really pleasant way to spend a hot day, and we felt really refreshed afterwards.

So today we did some more uphill walking to tour around the hamlet of Loveno. The hotel where we took our pasta class is located here; it's about a 15 minute slow walk uphill to get to the hotel. But the city of Menaggio has a self-guided walk you can take that walks you up through and around the older part of the Loveno town.

My impression of Loveno is that it is a very scenic suburb of Menaggio. We walked past several beautiful houses with epic views of the mountains and the lake. We also met a very friendly cat sunning herself on the cobblestones and looking like she owned the place.

One particularly striking villa that we saw was Villa Valsecchi, a private home built in the Art Nouveau style. The pastel green walls are festooned with flowers, vines, and smiling faces. It was a nice contrast to the more simply decorated classical-looking villas we've been seeing elsewhere on the lake.

From the upper hills of Loveno it's a really pretty walk back down to Menaggio through a forested path that was once a mule track leading between Loveno and Nobiallo. The track is nicknamed Via degli Sposi ("track of the newlyweds") because newly married couples used to walk the path after the wedding ceremony.

Down in Nobiallo, the walk takes you over a 600-year-old stone bridge to a church called the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Pace (Lady of Peace).

But of course the highlight of the day was our lunchtime cooking class back up in Loveno, at the Hotel Loveno. The setting was gorgeous -- a large sunny room with a big picture window looking out over the lake.

Our instructor was the charismatic hotel owner, Paolo. He is a chef and sommelier and gives pasta making lessons throughout the summer season. He was a wonderful and patient teacher. Our class of six students learned how to make two kinds of pasta dough. In southern Italy, the typical dough (pasta bianca) is made with just semola flour, water, and maybe salt. This dough can be used to make small shapes that don't hold any filling, like orechiette, cavatelli, and strozzapretti. Northern Italian pasta dough (pasta all'uovo) uses '00' flour and an egg and is versatile enough to make long pasta like tagliatelle as well as filled pastas like tortellini or ravioli.

After preparing both types of dough, we had to let the egg pasta rest for a bit, so we started off by shaping orechiette with the pasta bianca dough. Orechiette pasta gets its name because it is shaped like little ears (orecchio is Italian for "ear"). The rough surface of the pasta and the little curve of the the cup is good at holding onto the sauce. The key is to keep them all the same size and thickness so that they cook at the same rate.

The second dough was well-rested by the time we finished shaping all our little orechiette. We started by rolling out the egg dough into a long strip. Then we fed that strip into the rollers of a hand-cranked pasta machine to roll it even flatter. Then we cut that strip in half and rolled it through the machine once again at an even thinner setting.

Finally, on the same machine, we ran the long thin strip of dough through the cutting side to slice it into long tagliatelle noodles. Each set of noodles gets tossed with more '00' flour so that the noodles don't stick together. You make a little nest of pasta and that will be what you boil for a few minutes to make one serving of pasta.

We all got our chance to roll out the pasta and use the fun hand-crank machine with Paolo watching and helping as needed. Paolo also showed us how to make a few other pasta shapes, like farfalle (literally "butterflies" -- the little bow-tie shaped pasta) and agnolotti (small meat-filled dumplings that can be cooked in broth or vegetable-filled and cooked in a sage butter sauce).

We then handed off our fresh pasta to the hotel chefs to prepare and moved outside to a beautifully set table in the hotel's garden.

Paolo made sure we had plenty of wine and good bread, and we were served our tagliatelle bolognese first. Paolo explained that while he could teach us how to make pasta in one short afternoon, to learn to make a real Italian bolognese sauce would take all day. The hearty red sauce uses good pureed canned San Marzano or homegrown tomatoes, and is cooked down with olive oil, carrots, celery, onions, and meat for 2-4 hours. After the heavy tagliatelle we were also served our little orechiette with a light pesto sauce (blended basil, olive oil, pine nuts, parmigiano and/or peccorino cheese and maybe a hint of garlic). It was delicious!

After our hearty lunch we were served a sweet slice of tiramisu and got a chance to savor the last of the wine while taking in the beautiful view. Paolo's class was a fantastic experience and I would highly recommend it if you are ever in this corner of the world!

Around Town in Menaggio

We are enjoying the slow life in this beautiful town. Menaggio gets its fair share of tourist traffic in summer, but it is less well known than Bellagio and Varenna so it seems a bit quieter and more peaceful, especially as we get further into September.

Just off the main town square is the lane of Via Calvi, with shops, bistros, and the small but very pretty church of St. Marta tucked in between the buildings.

Looking up Via Calvi in the other direction, it leads directly to the larger church of St. Stefano with its very recognizable bell tower (campanile). These two churches are very close together, and both bell towers seem to be in competition throughout the day to sound off the time. We can't quite figure out the schedule because sometimes they go off on the hour or half hour, other times one will ring a seemingly random number of minutes before or after. Often the number of chimes does not actually match the time of day. It'll be 3pm and we hear not 3, not a military fifteen, but twenty or more chimes...we can't really make sense of it. But we do know that one of the two church towers gleefully plays an agressively loud and long "song" at 7:30 am each morning. Rise and shine!

Greater Menaggio has three hamlets -- Nobiallo, Croce, and Loveno -- that you can easily walk to from the main town. Nobiallo is probably the easiest to get to, since it's just north along a relatively flat path that follows the lakeshore. A bigger challenge is getting up the hill to Croce. We downloaded a guide from the Menaggio tourism office and set off on Saturday morning before the day got too hot. The hike starts with a pretty steep incline up a little path into a forested section of the hillside. From here you get some really great views of Menaggio below.

Even though summer is fading, there were still quite a few wildflowers growing by the side of the path. We even saw some bright pink cyclamen flowers growing wild, which I have never seen outside of a nursery back home. Other late-blooming plants were still attracting plenty of butterflies. This one (Argynnis paphia, I think) actually held still long enough for me to get a photo.

The path to Croce winds its way up an old mule track, and past a little chapel dedicated to the Madonna del Caravaggio. Little shrines like this one seem to be around every corner as you walk through the villages around the lake; these shrines and the regular chiming of the bells serve as constant reminders of the strong faith shared by the Italian people. 

We finally reached the center of the small village of Croce. Like all towns here, there was a pretty central square.

It was a very small hamlet, but we still managed to get a little bit turned around and wandered through some of the small lanes looking for the next point of interest on our walking guide.

We eventually managed to find our way out of the town and followed a very pleasant cycling path along a stream for a bit.

We could hear the tinkling of bells off in the trees and on closer inspection saw a small herd of goats just wandering the hills, unattended.

From there we rejoined the old railway line that has been turned into a bike path and headed back into town. We had enough time to clean up and relax a bit at the apartment before heading down to have dinner and listen to an evening jazz concert. Salute!