We escaped the rainy weather at the lake and went to Torino where it was supposed to be sunny and mild.  The weatherman was right on!   The forecast for the follwowing day back at the lake was supposed to be sunny, so we decided to put all our bets on it and planned a day on the opposite shore, at the little town of Varrena.  It was perfect!   We had the ferry boat almost to ourselves.

The eastern shore of the lake is definitely quieter than the western side where we are based.  Varenna is a picturesque town with a handfull of small hotels, one quite posh in an old villa, and a small amount of shopping.  Nothing is overdone and the little piazza above and separate from the shoreline is very charming, with a few small restaurants, a church, and some large sycamore trees lending greenery and shade.  On the south end of town we toured the beautiful botanic garden on the grounds of the Villa Monastero.  There were still lots of flowers still in bloom, and the statuary and setting immediately above the water were stunning.

We had a wonderful lunch in the piazza and watched as a wedding party pulled up in a vintage red Fiat and took some photos before racing off, to the church I presume.  Afterwards it was exercise time and we chose to hike up the hill to the small castle/fortress overlooking the town.  It was only 750 feet away as the crow flies and 550 feet higher in elevation.  This should be easy.  The cobblestone path wound up the hill through some dense woods, eventually emerging next to a small cluster of houses at the foot of the stone walls.  We poked around for a bit,  Laura played warrior queen, and we made it back down in perfect timing to catch the boat back across the lake.

Where is everybody? Did we miss the announcement?

Often times we can see from either our apartment balcony or while traveling on the lake quite serious plumes of dense smoke . I am not certain, but think they are from small smoke houses preparing meat.

A portion of the town of Varenna.

This is the business end of a classic street sweeping broom in Italy. There is actually a small bush grown here which supplys the branches that are then bundled to make the broom. I was saddened to see that green plastic had replaced many of these. Green plastic makes for ugly photos.

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Here I am! Take my picture.

The gardens are directly above the walled shoreline of the lake.

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Really, I wasn’t thinking about fishing the shoreline. Not!

Did I say the weather was nice this day?

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Not exactly a limo. But oh so Italian.

Did anyone tell the florist about air cooled engines???

Off to the next stop!

I need one of these at the ranch house.  I like the varying rind of color and moss above the water line.

I am not even sure what to say!

Heading back home before the gelato shop runs out of cones.

After three days of non-stop rain in Argegno, we were a little desparate. Weather.com informed us that the sun was shining just 2 hours west in Torino, so we were off, and Torino delivered sunshine and other unexpected treats.

The city was remarkable for it’s tree lined river front, cafe culture,  and varied and beautiful architecture. But an even more exciting surprise is that Torino is home to the “third most” important Egyptian exhibit in the world.  The exhibit was amazing and more extensive than anything we had ever seen–we absolutely loved it.

While on a walk along the typical cemented cobble “streets” and smaller vocolas of the town I finally figured out why there often is a line of cobbles running roughly down the middle. They locate the water pipes buried below. Ta Da!!! Another great mystery solved.

Just a bit of fall color is begining to appear in some of the vines.

For the cat lovers following the blog. Here is one for you.

The typical street architecture in Torino.

Many of the buildings have interior courtyards that can be quite lavish and landscaped. You have to keep peaking in doorways and arches.

We found a Vespa exactly like the one we have at home!

There are always churches to visit and every one is different.  The surprise never ends when you open the door.

Laura loved the patterns in the marble of the columns. I just think they reminded her of a gelato flavor she likes!

Saint or not, who is going to take him seriously with that name???

We were not real sure why this place had to have the scary faces on the facade.

There are many examples of buildings as grand as this throughout the city.

We found three arcades like this. Small when compared to that in Milan but no less beautiful. This also served as the “lobby” to a movie theater off to the right side.

The quality and depth of the Egyptian exhibit was a total surprise to us.

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This is bread. I am certain it is stale, but for 4000 years old what do you expect?

Everybody needed a crocodile in the next life. I guess.

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There were three rooms with statuary like this .

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The overhead wires are for the street cars and rail service which criss crosses the city.

One last stop at the end of the day in a very nice little desert and coffee shop before the drive back to the apartment on Lake Como.

The past few days have not been Chamber of Commerce Brochure weather days at Lake Como.  It is overcast with intermittent rain and a bit on the cool side.  We have filled the days with a wide variety of activities as the photos will show you.

There is an easy walk called the Green Way trail that meanders quietly through the towns above the lake and, in places, supposedly follows the original Roman road to the north.  You get to walk among houses and small gardens and get views of the town and everyday life that are not available from the main road lower down the hills. We plan to walk more of this trail before we leave the area.

Later in the day, we ventured to the opposite end of the experience domain by joining a couple of Houston business partners who are staying at the elegant Villa d` Este, just to the south of us in the little town of Cernobbio.  This historic villa is quite grand and as Laura noted during our first short visit there, can definitely be the “place to hang” for the rich and famous.  Our friends invited us because on this day, immediately below the hotel terrace restaurant, The Italian Gran Prix power boat races were being held, and we got to enjoy the excitement while we lunched. (Here, that translates to 2:30 in the afternoon).

Yesterday, in spite of intermittent rain, we started the day at the street market in the town of Lenno just north of us a couple of miles.  It was a classic Italian market with goods ranging from wonderful fresh and cooked meats, cheese, bread, fruit, vegetables, kitchen ware, and clothing.  We are now well stocked with meat, bread, and veggies in our little refrigerator.  We will be eating in for the next few days.  After lunch, we drove back down into Como for a bit of shopping which resulted in a new pair of shoes for me, and two pair of gloves for Laura.  That makes three pair for her so far! The girl loves her gloves.

There is always somebody in the neighborhood who does not understand the color scheme. Easy to find though.

We are not sure what the significance of the bundles of twigs and yellow ribbon are on this entry way.

Maybe the Romans really did use this path.

Great views from up in town.

Itty bitty narrow stairs abound for getting up and down from one level to the next.

This might be why the owner of the house in the first photo chose his color!

Laura read that only 1% of Italian households have clothes driers in them! As a result there is always an array of fabric drying, or this week trying to, hanging from the racks on the balconies. We have found out that this makes your terry cloth towels a little bit crunchy!

A day at the races complete with helicopter filming crews.

Yeah the Villa d` Este is a bit schmanzy! I did find a bit of grass that needed trimming.

This is a Sycamore tree on the grounds of the VdE that is supposedly over 600 years old. The trunk has a diameter of 8 feet!

Enough high brow stuff. We are off to the market and food shopping! A little more of reality here.

Chickens, turkey breast, and sausage on the spit. There is no way you can walk past these guys!

One of those. Two of those. And half a dozen wings please.

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The market even comes with entertainment but getting him to smile must have cost extra. Lots extra!

Ravioli almost too pretty to eat.

And if/when it rains there is always some place interesting to duck into to stay dry.

One of the things I like to do while on trips like this is to pick some idea or subject and take a series of photos that follow that theme throughout the trip.  It gives you a chance to shoot photos all the time and the search for more subjects of the theme also makes for fun.  I might have 2 or 3 different themes going at any time.

Here is the first installment of one of these.  The dogs of Italy.  As you travel around you get to see lots of them on the ends of leashes primarily, but if you get into the back streets or neighborhoods you might find some around the homes guarding the place as their temperament dictates.  Lots of the owners enjoy having their dogs photographed and will willingly stop their walking and get Fido to pose for you.  There is most definitely a preference toward small size dogs and if you like Jack Russels you will always have one not too far away.

This is our neighbor’s dog from about 80 yards up the driveway. He likes to come down in the morning and sits and waits, with a bit of whining included, until he gets us to pet him. Then he is gone for the day.

A shop keepers dogs in Bellagio. Looks kind of embarrassed with the whole pink thing.

Another Bellagio cafe dog.

“I got my owner to dress to match me this morning!”

Ah yes. The good life on Lake Como for the weekend. La Dolce Vita. Peel me a dog treat.

After lounging around “on board” for a while the owner tossed out a retrieving dummy tied to a rope and the dog jumped in and towed the boat back to shore. Quite the little exhibition.

Rock Fetch. What a game!!!

Out for a stroll in Como.

If one is good two has to be better.

What do you mean I sloshed all over the place???

Out for lunch with the girls.

It is ALL about the attitude!

I can’t decide if he is cute or just has a pitiful look.

Smells like Ralph got to the car tire before me!

I am just so dang classy. Don’t you think?

Dog kisses anyone? The owner loved this shot!! I emailed her a copy of it.

I guess some folks think they are cute.

Dreaming of chasing cats and eating dog treats.

It looks like he is giving us a disgusted look as we walked past his house.

“Are we real sure about crossing this street???”

“Yeah my nose is cold and wet. What about it???”

Pretty much everything posted on the blog has been shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III with various lenses.  It is a chunk to carry around at times but works wonderfully.  The following photos were all done with my iPhone and an App called AutoStitch.  It works like a charm and is easy to use.  Just take a series of photos and then it will stitch the overlap sections together and form a wide view panorama image.  For each of these I also opted for the higher resolution and advanced stitching software.  This really cleaned them up. It is fun to use and in the right instances gives a great impression of the view.

The street scene during Fashion Night in Milan

The piazza in front of the Duomo in Milan.

View from the terraces in Bergamo.

Up in the Dolomites.

Dolomite 2

From the top of the cable car.

Having spent the night in what appeared to be the last available hotel room in Verona, we rose early and headed toward the mountains. Verona is situated on the absolutely flat Po River valley, and after driving north for an hour or so across this featureless plain, the mountains literally burst up abruptly from it. We turned off the autostrade and began another winding ascent into yet another spectacular mountain landscape.

What makes the Dolomites so distinctive is their color scheme: the rock type “dolomite” is a rich pink color on a freshly exposed surface, but weathers to grey, so both colors are prominent on the peaks. The sun adds a warm yellow tone and, on this day, the blue sky was a brilliant background. It was a gorgeous pastel pallet.  The mountains are bare and stark, with “jagged, saw-edged ridges, rocky pinnacles, deep gorges, and numerous steep rock faces” (description compliments of www.britanica.com), as the pictures show.

Driving through the Dolomites took a day and a half and tested our navigational skills to the limit. Road signs were frequently vague or missing, and our best map was not nearly detailed enough. We made plenty of wrong turns, but we promise never a cross word passed between us (yea, right).  The highlight was in Vigo De Fassa, where we overnighted. We arrived just in time to catch the very last “finiculare” up to a summit view, and were treated to jaw dropping majesty in all directions as the sun dropped behind the western peaks.

It is interesting as you drive through Italy to notice the very local regional changes in the architecture and color variations of the houses.  Many times even more detailed differences can also be seen in window shutter color from town to town.  In the Dolomites the houses tend to be white colored and have a very “Swiss chalet” look to them that would remind most of us of Colorado ski towns.  These towns are extremely well kept and absolutely covered with window boxes that are full of cascading, multicolored petunias, geraniums, and alyssum flowers.

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The mountains at the top of the cable car ride.

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I keep running into this girl where ever I go!

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These were the plants that were on all of the balconies of the small hotel we stayed in.

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The literal translation is “the-trip-first-road.” What we’re trying to say is “the first road trip”! This is why learning Italian is not simple. The sentence structure is very different from what our English speaking brains are used to.

Wednesday evening we took a look at the calendar and realized that time was flying by and there were still a number of places we wanted to explore in northern Italy. The result? “Prima” Road Trip. We pulled out the road maps and travel books and did some quick planning so we would know where to go in the morning. We planned to head east from Lake Como, to see Bergamo, Verona, and then north into the Dolomite Mountains.

Thursday dawned sunny and gorgeous. Our decision to take a “back road” to Bergamo might not have been the best, and we definitely saw a side of Italian real estate that was not in the guide books: industrial, modern and often messy. But the first stop, Bergamo, was worth the effort. It is a city within a city, with the medieval “citta alta” (pronounced cheetah) perched high above the surrounding city on a rocky crag, protected by imposing stone walls that are 30 to 50 feet tall. The old town is home to University of Bergamo, and the student presence brings a surprising energy to this otherwise quiet, ancient place. Two amazing churches (side by side!), lovely piazza, and an old fort were all there to explore. The highlight was lunch in Café del Tasso, which has been in that location and serving food since 1476!

Late in the afternoon we moved on toward the city of Romeo and Juliet fame: Verona. This turned out to be yet another fabulous, totally surprising jewel, bustling with activity when we arrived near sunset. You enter the old town through a large piazza which is dominated by a Roman amphitheater. This mini-coliseum could originally seat 25,000 people, and is now used as a venue for modern day music performance. A bit deeper in the city is another piazza, surrounded by buildings from the 12th to 15th centuries, many with beautiful frescoed walls looking down onto the lively market area. Like Bergamo, there were few cars, so we filled the late evening with strolling around the streets, reading the tour guides, taking photos, then a late dinner before calling it a day.

The morning view across the lake. Do we have to leave??

This is the main piazza in Bergamo and the hub of the citta alta. Many of the old buildings are now part of the university. Our lunch cafe was just off the left side of the image and the two churches are on the other side of the bell tower.

The next images are from the interiors of two churches which are, at most, 40 yards apart from each other. The predomiately white interior church is on the left in the photo, the more highly decorated church is entered through the arch in the center of the frame. The ornate structure on the right is a mausoleum and no photos were allowed inside.

This is the left hand church with an 18 century baroque designed interior.

The right hand church, the Basilica of St Mary, dates to the 12 century but the interior was “remodelled” in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. If you like tapestries this is the place to go.

Laura has always described the churches in Italy as being like Faberge eggs. Sometmes the exteriors are grandiose, sometimes not so much. But as you open the typical small humble wooden doors you are never sure, and often  completely overcome by the beauty and decoration of the interiors. Both of these churches live up to her description.

Bronze gate ornamentation.

Successive door openings descend a steep street.

Serving great food for over 500 years!

Did I mention we had pizza at lunch? Quit drooling on your keyboard! It is not good for the electronics.

Almost forgot the ravioli with sage butter and sprinkles of raw sugar on it. Sorry. I will try to be more thoughtful.

At the top of town along the walls of the Rocca, or fortress, which has been a strategic strong point for over 700 years.

Not certain what this is but I like the color.

Italy truly is the land of potted flowers.

My taste buds have taken over my brain. It’s hopeless. I see things like this and my head says “kill them.  Eat them all!!!”

I confess. This is not my photo. I stole it from the net. There were way too many people to get a nice shot so I passed. This is the Roman era amphitheater in Verona.

This is the Piazza delle Erbe in Verona which was alive with a central market, sidewalk cafes, and pedestrians strolling.

The second story terrace walls were highly decorated with frescoes all along the piazza.

Verona’s quiet side streets. Here is where we start to look for a place to eat.

The model for the porch at the next house!

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Cafe window still life.

I mentioned in the first post of this blog that this is our fifth trip to Italy and how much we love coming here.  I started thinking about just what is it that draws us back?  Why do we enjoy it so much?  Why do we keep doing this?  Obviously from some of the photos I have posted so far the scenery is a driving force for sure.  It just looks so different, warm, and pleasing to us.  But there is more to it than that.  A lot has to do with the daily experiences we encounter that are so “out of the box” compared to those back in Houston.  Today when we drove up to a little town to find a dentist to glue one of Laura’s crowns back on her tooth, an old man came up to us and started a wonderful conversation with us as we sat on a bench in the middle of his little town.  Never mind that he spok zero English, and Laura was working hard to catch every fifth word of his Italian.  When was the last time any of us talked to a total stranger?

Some experiences make you laugh, others test you and your ability to solve challenges (some of those while driving).  Others warm your heart at the interaction of people so less commonly seen back home. Then there are the ones that are just plain different that cause you to think.  Why don’t we do that?  Not that what we do is wrong or bad,  just a different way to look at life.

Here is a little tour.  Enjoy.

We saw this guy in the piazza outside the Duomo in Milan. He is dressed in a suit, carrying a bouquet of white flower, engaged in a serious conversation on the phone and apparently looking for someone. My guess is an equally well dressed lady. From the little time we watched she never showed.

A street vendor sits on a stool with a bundle of palm fronds at his feet. He is folding and creating various insects and reptiles from his green origami work. People stop, watch, and occaisionally make a purchase. How they pack them and get back them home is anybodies guess.

Cars from somebody other than GM, Ford, and the Japanese. They are almost all small without a doubt, and gas is darn expensive. Some are very good looking vehicles that I wish we had back home.

Small religious shrines dot the city and country landscape. Some are definitely very old, but it is not surprising to find fresh flowers and a new candle burning in them.

First question: How many cars does it take to fill a silo? Second Question: What the hell is an autosilo? Third: Is it different than a “parking structure”

The average American absolutely stinks at driving compared to the Italians. Oh sure they drive fast, red lights are an endangered species, STOP signs are a suggestion and they are REAL close to each other, but your hardly ever see a banged up car, and we have yet to see an accident.

A highly decorated “street artist” (my term) stands stone still and tourists pose next to them for photo ops. It is ‘polite’ to put some coins in the plate.

A public drinking fountain with some style.

Roma era ruins preserved and built around and above at the local parking garage/autosilo.

The variation in color and texture on the exterior wall of a church. You can kinda, sorta, almost pay to get this sort of thing back home. But it just isn’t 200 years old and have the same look and feel.

A condom dispenser on the side of a building along the street in the center of a town instead of at a dingy highway truck stop. 

Some unfinished business required us to head to the “big city” of Como on Monday, in order to overnight some documents back to the states. Happily, there was a Mailbox Etc. just outside the 12^th century walls of the old city (now surrounded by a bustling, more modern expansion). It was another beautiful day, perfect for exploring, so we wandered in.

We were delighted to discover that this old part of Como is almost completely free of motorized vehicles…just a lovely complex of cobbled streets and piazzas, with shops, coffee bars and restaurants all around. The center of the area is anchored by the city’s cathedral (“Como Duomo?”), and we both thought that the interior was absolutely gorgeous, with a sort of geometric cobalt blue-gold star pattern on the ceilings  and two massive, amazing organs perched high on opposite sides of the nave.

Perhaps it was a good thing, but as it turns out, on Monday most of the stores in old Como don’t open until late afternoon, so our credit cards languished as we strolled and window shopped.  Still, it was a delightfully quiet, uncrowded, and absolutely pleasant outing.

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Notice the person in the lower right to get an idea of the scale.

The candle light is wonderful in some of the corners.

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No pews, just chairs, great window light.

Meanwhile, back outside on the streets, life goes about its everyday bike ride past the large statue. Just like home. Not

It is never to early to start thinking “gelato”!

Everday life on the small back streets.

Como colors.