The
ANNOTICO Report
Rick Steves' is a renown Travel writer who savors what he considers the best
of his favorite country.
LIFE IS
ROMANTICALLY GOOD AT ITALY'S LAKE
COMO
Stretched
over two chairs atop the tiny passenger deck of a 10-car ferry as it shuttles
across Lake Como,
I look south into the haze of Italy.
I'm savoring the best of my favorite
country with none of the chaos and intensity that's
generally part of the Italian experience.
Turning
the other way, facing a crisp alpine breeze, I marvel at the snow-capped Alps. I'm just
minutes from Switzerland,
but clearly in Italy:
The ferry workers have that annoying yet endearingly playful knack for
under-achieving. Precision seems limited to the pasta exactly al dente and reliably homemade.
Rather than banks and public clocks (which inundate nearby Swiss lake resorts,
such as Lugano), the lanes that tumble into this lake
are lined with lazy cafes and hole-in-the-wall food shops.
In
Italy's romantic Lakes District, in
the shadow of the Alps, wistful 19th-century villas are seductively overgrown
with old vines that seem to ache with stories to tell. Stunted palm trees seem
held against their will in this northern location. And vistas are made-to-order
for poets. In fact, it was early nature lovers who wrote and painted here that
put this region on the map in the 1800s.
A
handful of lakes tempt visitors just north of Milano.
The million-euro question is: Which lake to see? Tiny
Orta has an offbeat, less developed charm. Maggiore
has garden islands and Stresa, a popular resort town.
Garda is a hit with German windsurfers. But for the best mix of scenery, offbeatness and aristocratic-old-days romance, my choice is
Lake Como. And it's
just an hour north of Milan
by convenient train.
Sleepy Lake
Como is a good place to take a break from the
obligatory turnstile culture of central Italy. It seems half the travelers
you'll meet have tossed their
itineraries into the lake and are actually relaxing.
Today,
the hazy, lazy lake's only serious
industry is tourism. Thousands of lakeside residents travel daily to nearby Lugano, in Switzerland,
to find work. The area's isolation
and flat economy have left it pretty much the way those 19th-century Romantics
described and painted it.
Bellagio
is the lake's leading resort. The
self-proclaimed "Pearl of the Lake," it's
a classy combination of prim tidiness and Old World
elegance. Arcades facing the lake are lined
with shops. The heavy curtains, which hang between the arches, keep the
visitors and their poodles from sweating. While the fancy ties and jewelry sell
best at lake level, the locals shop up the hill.
Lake Como is famous among Italians
for its shape like a stick figure
of a man with two legs striding out. Bellagio is located where the two legs
come together (and the subject of funny, if crude, local rhymes you can learn
when you visit). For a delightful break in a park with a great view, wander
from the town right on out to the crotch. At Punta Spartivento
literally "the point that
divides the wind" you'll find a Renoir atmosphere that's just right for a picnic, while gazing north and
contemplating the place where Italy
is welded to the Swiss Alps.
The
town of Varenna (a
10-minute hop on the ferry from Bellagio) is your best Lake Como
home base. Varenna packs its 800 residents into a
compact townscape tight as oysters
overloading a too small rock. Individual homes are defined only by their pastel
colors. Narrow stepped lanes climb from the harbor to the tiny through road
that parallels the lake along the top of town.
With Varenna's
dwellings crowding the lake, the delightful board walk
arcs past private villas guarded by wrought iron and wisteria from the ferry
dock to the tiny harbor. Two centuries ago, the harbor was busy with coopers
expertly fitting their chestnut and oak into barrels, stoneworkers carving and
shipping Varenna's
prized black marble, and wooden boats catching the
lake's "missoltino,"
sardine-like fish still proudly served by local chefs. Today, the harbor's commerce is little more than the rental of
paddleboats and a gelateria run by a guy named Eros.
Other
than watch the visitors wash ashore with the landing of each ferry, there's wonderfully little to do in Varenna.
At night, Varenna whispers "luna
di miele" honeymoon and a good place to enjoy that romance is
on the boardwalk. Strolling this lane, past
wisteria-drenched villas, you'll
understand the importance of packing the right travel partner.
Edmonds-based
Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and
hosts travel shows on public television and public radio.