Tuesday – 2nd Week: Lenno to Sala Comacina

After last nights storm, today’s weather is absolutely beautiful and the haze that often hangs round the lakes has been completely washed away to give the clearest day we’ve seen in our vast experience (about 6 days over two trips so far). Anyway, check out the photos – the scenery is stunning.

Tuesday is Market day in Lenno, so we’d been advised by our land lady to go to Lenno for the market. Lenno is the next town down the lake from Tremezzo, so today’s walk is really a bit of an extension of the previous days.

The ferry takes us from Bellagio to San Giovani, crosses the lake to Menaggio, then bounces down the west side of the lake to Cadenabbia, Villa Carlotta, Tremezzo and then finally to Lenno. Because Tuesday is Market day, the ferry was packed with people all heading for the market – many of them old and none too mobile Americans.

The market turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Italian markets aren’t nearly as good as French markets, so we pretty much just walked straight through it and out the other side only stopping to check out the fish, meat and cheese stands.

Beside Lenno, is Villa del Balbianello, which our landlady had advised us to visit as it is one of the most impressive on the lake, with beautiful gardens. The villa was built in the last years of the 17th century by Cardinal Durini as a summer residence where he could indulge in literary past times. It had various owners over the centuries, got run down, got restored until finally in 1988 it was left along with a trust fund by Guido Monzino to the FAI (Italian equivalent of English Heritage and National Trust), who administers the property today. For part of the week, you have to take a boat taxi to the villa, but on Tuesday’s you can walk the kilometer through the forests, which Anne and I did.

The grounds and the views across the lake are spectacular, as you can see from the photos. There were some models doing a fashion shoot, while we were there, so we watched for a few minutes how 10 people can take 5 minutes to make 2 people look spectacular, stand just right and then take a photo, before going over the whole process again. The blasting off photos, like you see on TV was certainly not what was being done here.

After the Villa, we went on a scenic walk to Sala Comacina further down the lake. When we got there, we found the most beautiful little bay, with a restaurant beside it, so we stopped there for a lunch of lemon ravioli and lake fish – very nice.

After lunch we went for a little walk, before catching the ferry back to Bellagio and awaiting the days electrical storm. We went to our local deli and bought some Brescaolo (cured beef), pecorino cheese and olives to have as an apetiser for dinner, which was pizza from just up the road and finished off with Gelato – all had on our balcony, watching the world and the rain clouds go by.