Day 10 - Friday 16 September - Como, Bellagio, Varenna

Slept reasonably well again, even in the heat.

Got up. Still turned out to be a slow morning even though I did photo stuff last night. Also had to pay for one of the tolls the other day. They're starting to move to booth-less tolls, which means if you blink and miss a sign you're screwed. Plus, you have to register all your details just to pay the toll. hrmmm.

Had breakfast and bought tickets for the bus in the café downstairs. It was a twenty minute wait for a bus (woulda been quicker to walk probably). Turns out you have to buy the tickets before you get on the bus. You validate them when you get on and they're good for 75 minutes. Great. Except Mum did that no problems, but when I went to do it the guy took my ticket off me and told me to sit down. WTF?? What if I need that for another bus. Shouldn't do, so that's ok, I guess.

Got off at the ferry pier and was happy that the queue looked shorter than yesterday. The happiness was short-lived however, because it turns out the ferry drivers were on strike for today and there were no ferries running on the lake. WTF????? What a bunch of buttplugs. I was PISSED because that was the biggest reason we came to Como. So we wondered about getting a bus to Bellagio, but the guy at the bus station was like *shrug* and didn't know if any would be running today. I was not happy. So we thought, well I guess we can drive. I really didn't want to, but seems like we had no other choice.

So we needed to go back to the B&B. Woulda been nice to take the bus back. EXCEPT THE BUTTPLUG DRIVER STOLE MY TICKET!!! So we were going to have to try and find somewhere to buy another one. But given how infrequently they were running, probably also affected by the strike, Mum said it probably wasn't worth waiting anyway, so we walked. We stopped for a little while in a park so we could look at the map and decide where we wanted to drive. And continued back to the B&B.

Villa Olmo

Lizard near Villa Olmo

When we got back they were busy making up the rooms, and we told them about the strike, and they were like, well we can take you on our boat. Five hours, 350 euro. I was stressed about it, since technically it wasn't legal and if anything happened there'd be no insurance or anything. But Mum wanted to go, so we went. Although we first had to rush out and find some lunch. I was so stressed I struggled to eat it.

Got back to the B&B and got picked up by the dude's mum to take us a few kilometres up the lake to go on his boat. I have to admit it was kinda pleasant, and there were no crowds and had the boat to ourselves.

We puttered along the lake, all the way to Bellagio. Had about three quarters of an hour there.

Villa Dozzio

View north along Lake Como

Villa Erba

Villa d'Este

Red villa (with the effects of the summer's drought evidenced in the trees)

View north along Lake Como

Villa Oleandra - George's Clooney's Lake Como villa

Chiesa di S. Giorgio in Laglio

Joseph Frank Pyramid Mausoleum

Villa by Lake Como

Buildings in Torriggia

Trophy Estate Laglio

View towards Nesso

View northeast along Lake Como

Cool looking cliff line west of Lake Como

View northeast along Lake Como

San Giovanni and the Italian Alps

Villa Melzi D'Eril and the Italian Alps

View towards Bellagio

Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni

Me and Marcello in Bellagio
Photo by Mum

Buildings in Bellagio

View across Lake Como from Bellagio

Buildings in Bellagio

View from a nice park near the Bellagio boat harbour

Me and Mum in Bellagio

Then hopped across the lake to Varenna. We had half an hour there, but spent a good chunk of it trying to find a toilet. 1 euro each. Sigh.

View towards Varenna

Buildings in Varenna

Arched walkway in Varenna

Stairway up the side of the hill in Varenna

View across Lake Como from Varenna

Varenna waterfront

Buildings in Varenna

The back to Como. I guess there's worse ways to lose 350 euros...

I may have been stressed about the risk and the money, but this boat ride was literally the highlight of Mum's holiday, she had a wonderful time

Cliffs west of Lake Como near Ca' Bianca

View towards Menaggio

View towards Bellagio

View towards Griante

Villa Carlotta

Cool looking cliff line past Intignano

View towards Nesso

Buildings in Nesso

Orrido di Nesso. Marco hadn't seen this waterfall flowing in the longest time. After the drought over summer it rained and rained so the waterfall was flowing again.