Writers from Goethe and Stendhal to DH Lawrence and Hemingway have lavished praise on the Italian Lakes, a dramatic region of vivid-blue waters ringed by snow-powdered peaks.
Curling Lago Maggiore is home to the bewitching Borromean Islands and offers a blast of the belle epoque. Mountain-fringed Lago di Como delivers extravagant villas and film-star glamour.
Families find fun in the southern amusement parks of Lago di Garda while adrenaline junkies are drawn to the spectacular mountains in the north. Little Lago d’Iseo serves up soaring slopes while the villages and islands of diminutive, often bypassed Lago d’Orta are laced with laid-back charm.
Lake Como (Lago di Como) is lined with elegant 19th-century villas, crowned by snowcapped mountains, and busy with ferries, hydrofoils, and slow, passenger-only boats – it’s a good place to take a break from the intensity and turnstile culture of central Italy. It seems like half the travelers you’ll meet have tossed their itineraries into the lake and are actually relaxing. 😊
We’ll be in this area for the next few days. We’ll be posting separately about individual activities. But here is a smattering of the beauty that is the Lake Como area.
Varenna – This well manicured village of 800 people offers the best of all lake worlds. Easily accessible by train, on the less-driven side of the Lake, Varenna has a romantic promenade, a tiny harbor, steep and narrow stepped lanes, and some scenic sights.
It’s just the right place to savor a lakeside cappuccino or aperitivo. There’s wonderfully little to do here, and it’s very quiet at night (unless you happen to get unlucky to witness the one of the hundred-or so annual American wedding parties.)
The passerella (lakeside promenade), well-lit and inviting after dark) is adorned with caryatid lovers pressing silently against each other in the shadows.
Passerella – A generation ago, Varenna built this elegant lakeside promenade, which connects the ferry dock with the old town center.
Lake Como is lined with swanky 19th-century villas; their front doors face the lake to welcome visitors arriving by boat. The buildings in town are stringently protected by preservation laws; you can’t even change the color of your villa’s paint.
There are no streets in the old town – just the characteristic stepped lanes called contrade.
Varenna was originally a fishing community. Imagine this harbor 200 years ago: The “Il Bottaio” gallery is named for the cooperage – once active with coopers fitting chestnut and oak staves into barrels.
Stoneworkers were busy carving the black marble that was quarried just above town. Fisherman dragged boats onto the sloping beach and unloaded their goods onto carts for horses to carry up Contrada dei Cavalli (named for those horses, with gentler, more horse-friendly steps than other lanes) to the market square above. The little stone harbor dates from about 1600. Today, the fishing boats are just for recreation.
Piazza San Giorgio – Varenna’s town square, historically the market square, faces what for centuries has been the lakeside highway.
In earlier eras it was busy with traders and pilgrims. The sycamore, or plane trees, groomed to provide shade, are planted to make a V for Varenna. The street plan survives from Roman times, when gutters flowed down to the lake.
The little church on the lake side of the square is the baptistery. Dating from the ninth century, it’s one of the oldest churches on the lake.
Church of San Giorgio – (Chiesa di San Giorgio) – Varenna is an understandably popular spot for weddings – rice often litters the front pavement. The main church was built in the 1200s. Imagine being a 13th-century wayfarer and coming upon the fresco of St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers, on the church’s façade. With a backpack at his feet, he welcomes you to step inside.
You’ll find a Romanesque interior with a few humble, centuries-old bits of carving and frescoes. The black floor and chapels are made from local marble.
On the right, a beautifully carved walnut confessional is ornamented with symbols reminding worshippers that in depth, all are equal.
And the fresco on the back wall, dating from the same century as Dante’s Inferno (the 14th), makes the horrors of hell all too clear.
Jackie and I were very moved by this little church. As is our tradition, we made a small donation to light two candles in memory and in prayer for those that passed before us on the Pritchard and Hayes sides of the family. Since our last International Travels, Jackie’s father David is our most recent. My sister-in-law Michelle is my most recent.
Lake and Garden View from Villa Monastero – Lake Como is lined with 19th-century villas. In the Romantic Age, a villa came with a charming lakeside kiosk and an extravagant garden.
People loved exotic trees, and here – at the latitude of Boston – they could grow palms and oranges. A promenade through this mix of gardens and architecture was enjoyed as an art form.
The former residence of the De Marchi family, the Villa Monastero is now a museum filled with overly ornate furnishings from the late 1800s. If offers the handiest look inside one of the old villas that line the lakeshore.
The gardens feature cypress trees, several varieties of palms, a citrus garden, and a wisteria garden that is delightful when in bloom.
