Italy and Germany 2012: Como

Como today. Planned a walk around the local Tuesday markets and catch a boat up Lake Como to Bellagio. Bellagio is about the middle of the lake in the top ‘V’. Plans all went well and got home about 5pm and walked around looking for a laundry, no luck there, found a bar and a cold drink.

Pam and I were a little under-whelmed with Como. After hearing so much about it we were looking forward to a colourful and vibrant city with the lake as a brilliant backdrop. Como looks to us to be uncared for. There is graffiti everywhere, there are vacant blocks with long grass, cigarette butts line the gutters and rubbish lies on the footpaths. The footpaths themselves are cracked and broken with lifted pavers and bare concrete all over them. Some of the tree lined streets have dead trees in them which look as if they’ve been dead for a couple of years. The water front could be a real bonus but it looks more like an industrial boat shed. Half the wharf is closed off with a new complex being built; it looks as if it has been abandoned with grass growing through the site and no activity at all.

Lake Como was beautiful and it looks like all the money in the area has gone into waterfront developments which are private and secure and the public areas have been neglected.

Now that I’ve completed bagged Como I should say the lake and surrounding mountains are divine. We had a hazy day but the ride on the boat through the mountains was well worth the effort. Bellagio has embraced the tourists and is full of shops and eateries; it is clean and quaint with lots of steps through narrow streets. They did serve a delicious pizza for lunch!!!

We are at a bar having a drink at the moment, waiting for our first non-Italian feed in over two weeks…fish and chips.
The photos aren't much chop today, most were taken from inside the boat through perspex. We could see quite well, just the cameras couldn't capture what we could see. The open boats were a fair bit slower and didn't fit our schedule so we had to take the fully enclosed fast boats.