Italy Day 11 - A visit to Como

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Today we are going to Como. We passed through Como on the way into Switzerland going to Lugano, but today we were going to return because the city is small, lots of shops and beautiful views.

It seems as this entire trip, as someone commented, is eating our way across Europe. The other thing I might point out i s, while that might be the way I write, the other side of that coin is I feel like I've walked across Europe. Walking, climbing up stairs, going down stairs and more walking has been the active part of every day, except the days we hold a bus seat down for 8 to 10 hours moving around Italy and into Switzerland.

The food has been great. Except for one place, every place we have eaten has been delightful. The lunch and dinner on our own concept has worked out well. The only bad meal was the one provided by the Tour company. I think the score from the members of our group was 0-24, good-bad.

Italy is not known for it's great beer, but rather wine, and I think we have tasted wine from all the local regions, which has been delightful. I've also tasted the beer, but they don't have microbreweries around, so you get what is brewed in the region, mostly light ales.

We walked around Como with a delightful tour guide, Beatrice, that knew the area. She was pleasant, easy to understand, and could understand us and answer questions when we had them.

After her time was over, around lunch, we decided to take a cable car to the top of the mountain, to check out the shops, have lunch, and then come back down. We were in Como from 10 until 4.

A wonderful day, pretty views, and even could see the top of one of the snow covered Swiss Alps peeking though the top of the clouds in the distance. If the day would have been a clear dry day, the view would have been perfect. But you enjoy what you are given, especially when it is so breathtaking.

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Photos

PLV's Pretty Little Villages
There are so many pretty little villages along the highway. There are grape fields terraced along the hills everywhere.

The plaza on the shore of the lake by the Duomo.
Back in the late 1700's this was a dock for boats. The water would have been over the place where we are standing. They needed space, so they filled it in, and put in Gucci and other stores. It is a very popular place.

The charming Beatrice
Our tour guide for our morning walk around Como, and history lesson for the day.

Lake Como, and the town Como
The lake looks like an upside down "Y". Como is at the bottom left branch. The river runs through the right side of the branch, so it is "cleaner" than the left side as far as water quality.

Defense from Milan. The back of the main gate.
The front faced the road from Milan, to protect the citizens. There was a wall around the city.

The Cathedral
The Cathedral was built over the course of 200 years. The noted part of this Cathedral are the statues on the front. The statues placed on the facade start out less holy on the bottom, and more holy as you get to the top. The unique part of this church is the statues on the bottom left and right are pagans. Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, his nephew. Pliny the Elder wrote and described the destruction of Pompeii which he witnessed from a boat and died from going in to help people according to his nephew.

Left to right, the bell tower, the old public hall, the Cathedral
You will notice the balcony isn't in the middle of the wall on the public hall. That is because when they were building the church, they needed more space and took in some of the hall. It is a museum now, and the church is very nice.

More "educational" material
Another example of the stories on tapestry.

The tower and wall
Of course, now the gates are open, but there are two relics, pay phones.

The village at the South end of the lake
Walking around from the square to the cable car provided this view of the village.

Ducks, mostly Mallards and swans.
I see lots of ducks in the water, and no duck on the menus, so I think these guys are safe, at least in this part of the world.

The view from our restaurant table
Far off in the distance you can see some clouds, and mountains, but peeking from the top of the clouds very far off, you could see the snow covered mountain top of the Alps, Can't see it in this picture. We used binoculars.