Lake Como - blabbing about Bellagio!
Written: Sep 01 '03 (Updated Sep 16 '03)
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Pros: Just so much to do and see. The food... ooh, the food.
Cons: Not cheap.
The Bottom Line: Feeling lazy or active - Lake Como will suit!
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| cr01's Full Review: Lake Como |
Italy’s Lago Di Como (Lake Como) really seems to be that rare place in the world with something for everyone. Whatever your energy levels, you will find yourself some activity to engage in, be it simply wandering alongside beautiful villas and gardens while gazing at the tree lined sheer mountains towering above the lake, taking a dip or speed boat in the lake itself, hiring a water plane to skim you over the lake, or energetically hiking over the tops of those mountains. This particular review covers the more gentle pursuits of the region around the town of Bellagio.
Bellagio – and not a casino in sight!
The main tourist town on the lake is arguably Bellagio. This is where we made our base for our recent visit to Como. Bellagio is in the centre of the “Y” shaped lake, and it is exceptionally easy to get around the lake from here. A bus can take you along the narrow winding and hair-raising road to Como Town, or far less stressfully you can catch one of the regular ferries that leave from the two ferry ports on the harbour side. On the other sides of the lake, very close to Bellagio are the other main tourist towns of Varenna and Menaggio, and a regular car ferry links the three towns together, as well as provide travel further afield. From Menaggio, a bus can take you to Milan Malpensa airport.
Bellagio is an exceptionally pretty town with its restaurant lined lake front, and narrow and steep cobbled streets facing down onto the lake. Houses have butterscotch paintwork, delicate wrought iron clad balconies decked with flowers and shuttered windows.
The town was noticeably quieter than on our last visit three years ago, with a distinctly less American flavour (on our previous visit there were many American tourists about). The rainbow coloured PACE (pronounced like “Apache” only without the “A”) flags hanging from almost every upstairs window showed a sign of the times. PACE is the Italian peace movement – and the local opposition to the war in Iraq appeared to be almost total, although I detected no sense of animosity towards people whose governments had a different view. I spoke to a young waiter during the week who told me that a number of Americans had been very upset at the sight of the flags around the town – one or two had even got into violent arguments about the flags as they felt they were anti American rather than what they are – anti war. You can purchase a flag from a young guy working at the local sports centre, if you are that way inclined.
I exist for Shopping, Eating and Sleeping!
There is a considerable amount of shopping opportunities in Bellagio with expensive designer clothes shops, gaudy Italian jewellery shops (“subtle” is not a word in a traditional Italian jewellers vocabulary), expensive trinket and art shops, cheese and pasta shops (definitely not cheap!) and no end of restaurant choices. As a person who just loves to hunt down a bargain, I found souvenirs to be far cheaper out of Bellagio, although apart from in Como Town itself, you will not have as much choice. If you pass the local farmers cheese co-operative on the edge of town then it is well worth dropping in for good value and tasty local cheeses. Likewise, the restaurants tend to be more expensive in the middle of the town, and you face an additional price hike if you want to eat close to the lake.
Never forget to pick up your purchase and restaurant receipts – in Italy it is a legal offence not to have the receipt for your purchases, and spot checks are made on people leaving premises to check they have a receipt and heavy fines can be levied. The government impose this rule to ensure that purchase tax is recorded and collected.
Our hired apartment was about a mile from the bustle of the centre of Bellagio towards the top of one of the outlying hills and which gave us an excellent view of both sides of the “Y” shaped lake – we really felt that we were marooned on a small island surrounded by a narrow moat! The area was very residential, and we soon got into the Italian swing, as around us we could spot extended families chatting and laughing out on their terraces, enjoying their evening meal. There is something very relaxing about the Italian language carrying lightly through the evening breeze!
Sit back and enjoy the free shows
The geography of the lake is such that fierce and regular thunder storms regularly build up on the lake – around the “Y” of the lake, sheer cliffs and mountains extend up to over 5,000 feet, trapping the hot day air. Each evening we were in Bellagio we sat on our covered balcony with a “Lemon Bomb” cocktail in hand ( local Lemon liquor, dry white wine, fizzy tonic water and a bucket full of ice), and watched the free fireworks, as forked lightening surrounded the lake and a tremendous roar of thunder echoed around. While the storms are spectacular, the day air conditions are often muggy, the views hazy and you are never too far from a short refreshing but unexpected soaking. By 2:00pm most days the clouds are starting to billow and expand upwards.
Bargain Lake Tour!
One of the best bargains of the region is the six euros ($6 or so) fare for the slow ferry boat to Como, which takes an hour and three quarters to undertake as you sun yourself on the open air deck and stop by a dozen or so ports en-route. You also pass close to the beautiful landscaped gardens of the Sala Comacina (the only island on the lake), the Villa Balbianello, as well as the grand entrance to the Villa Carlotta. To accompany your lazy meander, a plastic beaker of delicious dry white local Pino Gringo costs 1.50 euros from the on board bar – it’s not served with style, but goes down very well regardless. However, beware of the travel rage – we got elbowed aside by a rather plump German gentleman who appeared rather perturbed to find himself not in front of the line for the prime deck seats. I hope he understood my blunt Anglo-Saxon verbal response.
Bellagio Restaurants
We found a local restaurant just out of town in the hill village of Visgnola, the Buena Vista. For 17 euros a head we enjoyed a huge traditional meal of pasta to start, and then I chose a juicy and laden seafood pizza. Local dry white wine came in jugs at seven euros a litre, fresh, young, green and delicious. As a bonus and additional free spectacle, outside the restaurant we found hundreds of fire flies flickering green in the night sky. We later discovered the town has a large fire fly population in early summer, and on our way back to our apartment we walked past a traditional garden with fruit trees, vines and pillars and were transfixed by the darting flies, shining so brightly in their hundreds that an almost mystical green glow overtook the whole garden.
If you are fancying a culinary splurge, then I can recommend a couple of restaurants – one the Restaurant Alla Darsene is in the village of Loppia, just the other side of the Villa Melzi on the outskirts of town. The restaurant is set in an ancient, sleepy and pretty harbour, surrounded by traditional built square villas. You can either eat indoors or out. You are greeted with a glass of fizz, and a nibble of food.
We had to go the full hog, and order an anti-pasti (in my case a gentle pate of lake fish with toast), followed by a pasta dish (a “primi piatti”) (home made tortellini with cherry tomato sauce flavoured with fresh Basil – simple and fresh), and then a meat course (your “secondi piatti”) (lake fish with salad and bread). If you want Italian food with a bit of a modern twist, then this is the place to come. With a carefully chosen couple of bottles of wine (the sky’s the limit with the wine list!), our meal for four came to a little over 150 euros ($150) without tip - excellent value for the restaurant views, the relaxed but attentive service and good food. If you want to skip a course, then I would pass on the secondi piatti – in many Italian restaurants I have encountered, it is often a disappointment after the excellence of the first two courses.
The only downside – the loud pushy sweaty (and sad to say, British) sales rep sat at the table at the other end of the open air part of the restaurant brokering a business deal with an overfed Italian, while their wives loudly swapped make up tips, and the loud echoes of the barking dogs from within a lock up garage a few doors down. This meant that the dining experience wasn’t quite as relaxing as it could have been.
Another beautiful lakeside place to eat is at the hotel and restaurant “La Pergola” which is located again just a little way outside the centre of Bellagio. Actually housed in an old lakeside townhouse, the interior of the hotel is antique and traditional with stone flagged floors and ancient doors, while the courtyard is peaceful and has a beautiful setting. This is a place very popular with Italians (always a good sign!), and booking is advisable. Our good quality meal for six cost around 200 euros.
Gardens and Villas Galore
If you are a garden lover, then you will have no shortage of villas and gardens to visit. One of the easiest places to visit in Bellagio is the Villa Melzi, a grand but crumbling villa (closed to the public) and a large expanse of formal woodland and parkland gardens right next to the lake. The villa was built for Melzi d’Eril, who was vice president of the Italian Republic in the early 1800’s headed by Napoleon. As well as being a classical park (with lots of photo opportunities with pieces of traditional marble sculpture and beautiful trees alongside the lake), there is a small Napoleon museum of memorabilia. If you have an hour or two to spare, the Villa Melzi makes for a relaxing stop. Entrance cost around four euros a person ($4)
In the centre of Bellagio is the Villa Serbelloni (owned by the Rockefeller Foundation) where you can take a guided tour of the gardens, and look at the view over the lake (from the gardens you get a good view of both arms of the lake). Although we didn’t visit on this occasion, we did enjoy the tour on our last visit. I remember the gardens to be more intricate than the “parkland” feel of the Villa Melzi, with specific landscaped areas. The steeper gradient of the gardens also allowed for more dramatic areas to be planted. The downside is that you can only visit the gardens during specific guided tours – I prefer to go at my own pace which is usually much slower than that of the guide, and to linger on the areas that interest me. You can buy tickets for the tour at the main tourist information centre in the town square opposite the church (beware, the staff have a very lazy and long lunch and so the office is shut for a number of hours early afternoon!).
On the opposite side of the lake is the Villa Carlotta, an imposing lakeside villa near to the village of Tremezzo. I didn’t drop by on this occasion but from previous experience, the villa is a pink and white neo classical palace built by a Prussian Princess in the 1700’s for her daughter, Carlotta (now, why don't I have kind and generous parents like that?).
The house itself, although impressive enough (with its collection of statues), is overshadowed by its gardens, despite these only covering 14 acres. The front of the house sits on top of a bank, with landscaped gardens, balconies, and stairways drawing you up to the house. On the way up the steps, beautiful water features full of lilies and terrapins captivate.
The Villa Carlotta gardens also contained a fruit garden, a Japanese garden & camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas; whatever the time of year, there is always something worth seeing.
Villa del Balbianello
The Villa del Balbianello is close to the town of Lenno, which is easily accessable by ferry. The town of Lenno itself is very quiet and cheaper and more relaxed than Bellagio. Lakeside restaurant prices are much more reasonable, and the town is worth taking some time to stroll around. We walked out of Lenno a mile or so up into one of the villages called Mezzegra. This place would be unremarkable were it not the place where in 1944 the Italian Fascist dictator Mussolini was executed. Call me strange if you like, but as we were so close I was keen to see the dozy unexciting village, where once a little history was made.
Getting to the Villa del Balbianello is a complex affair and your choices depend on the day that you visit! Some days you are allowed to walk the mile along the road to the villa and gardens, but on others (and when they have corporate hospitality events booked) the road is closed, and your only access to the villa and gardens is via speed boat! The day we visited, the road was closed, and so we had to pay an additional five euros just to get to the front gate! You catch the speedboat from one of the restaurants on the lake front – it is well signposted.
While the short speed boat journey to the small private harbour steps of the villa was pretty cool (and my wife just loved sitting in the front of the boat next to the young and well toned Italian stud driving the boat, while I was ushered to the back seat), I was a little annoyed that the access arrangements (and additional cost) hadn’t been described in the leaflet about the place that we had picked up.
Also rather frustratingly, tours of the actual villa can only be pre-arranged which meant that although you could nip into the tourist shop on the ground floor, you couldn’t actually join the ongoing tours of the house! From what I saw of the beautiful house and its surroundings, it would be worth the effort to do this, if only for the views across the manicured lawns and sculptured trees to the lake.
Even with these minor annoyances, the trip was well worth the effort – the gardens are truly immaculate and almost Japanese in style with its intricately cropped trees and hedgerows, aged romantic sculptures and long sweeping walkways; and the vine clad stone built sun house and villa spectacular.
Further Reading
Want to find out about: Como Town?
Are you flying into: Milan Malpensa?
Flying: Alitalia?
For more energetic pursuits, you may want to read my account of hiking in the region.
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cr01 asserts his rights to be associated as author of this review – 2003-
Footnote: One of the first reviews I wrote for Epinions was about my previous experiences around Lake Como. This has now been deleted to make way for this updated version. For the record, the original review was my most popular travel review having gathered 1562 hits and earned me a princely $5.89. May its successor do half as well!
Recommended:
Yes
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cr01
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Member: Chris
Location: Yorkshire, England
Reviews written: 414
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In Venice until Monday :o)
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