Advertisement
Dan with our flash alfa
And some "dan up" a drink from Danone Anj's European Adventure
Angela Johnston After leaving glorious Vernazza we caught a train to La Spezia and hired a car for our drive to the lakes.
We were supposed to have a Fiat Punto but they were apparently all gone, and we were given a brand new Alfa with only 2,000km on the clock! We were excited to have a GPS, thinking it would help navigate scary Italian roads. It turns out our GPS (which we named Francesca) unfortunately only spoke Italian tho. It made for an interesting drive and I became translator as I could make out some of what she was saying! Dan did very well to drive on the other side of the road, manage the autostradas AND the crazy italian drivers. Well done!!
It took us 5 hours (rather than the estimated 3.5) to drive to Porlezza on Lake Lugano, and Parco San Marco which was the resort were were staying in. Parco San Marco is gorgeous, and within a couple of hours of being there, I was wondering why I was only staying 2 nights then heading to a hostel in Como!! We sorted out accommodation and I stayed the whole 4 days. Check out the website:
Stuck in the customs truck lane going into Como
Lesson learnt - follow the "touristica" sign, not "commerciale"!! http://www.parco-san-marco.com/english/home/
Dan's friends Clare & Simon also stayed, and their crazy friend Rich Sayo who I shared the lounge room with! We checked out Bellagio on Lake Como and wondered where George Clooney lives. A storm came over really quickly and we got stuck on the ferry going to Varenna in a hail storm, with lightening bolts hitting Lake Como and we couldn't see to the other side of the lake. A bit scary, but the trip to Varenna was aborted and we went back to Parco San Marco.
Later that night we decided to go to Switzerland for dinner - I didn't realise it but Lugano IS indeed in Switzerland, which explained why everyone was German and all the instruction manuals were too! It was raining cats and dogs (again) so it made for a hairy drive along the lake in the darkness. Luckily we took our passports as we got stopped at the border. Clare & Simon's car went straight through but they looked at our passports, said "ah, Australians" and took them inside for closer inspection! Thankfully it was just a spot check and we met up with the others in Switzerland for dinner. Again,
we were caught out going late for dinner and choice was limited, but had a fabulous dinner on Lake Lugano.
On Wednesday we decided to hire bikes and ride to Lago di Piano, next to Lake lugano. My bike wouldn't adjust so I decided to walk while the others rode. I got a bit lost which was quite scary as none of the main roads seem to have pedestrian pathways next to them!!! Thankfully I found the others who had a picnic already to go as well as a nice glass of chianti to calm my nerves. Lago di Piano is gorgeous and we had a nice walk around it before the rain came back.
As we had limited choice of what to do we explored the hotel - something we should have done sooner! We discovered the kiddie pool complete with water slide, and as it was raining we had it all to ourselves. Probably a good thing as if any of the staff were around they wnouldn't have been too impressed! Robyn said the slide was moving a bit too much - guess it was made for kids. We then went and found the adult spa,
indoor pool + jacuzzi + sauna area which was lovely. We had a bit of an issue with the naked Europeans in the saunas though, and walking around starkers in the sauna area. It's just not done in Australia so a bit shocking for us, and we were being looked at like the offensive ones, for actually daring to wear clothes in the sauna!!!
As we were rained out the previous evening we decided to stay local and go to the pizza restaurant down the road...which incidentally we visited 3 out of the 4 nights! It was just very reliable, we could walk there, and all the meals were fab. They had fresh porcini so we had risotto, the grilled fish was fab, as were the pizzas, not to mention the dessert cart which they wheeled out at the appropriate time, and which got us each night we were there.
Yesterday was a bit of a write off....we all got up late again, it wasn't the best day, and Rich had to get to Bergamo airport by 5pm. We decided to go to Bergamo for a look around, but didn't leave until nearly 3pm, got stuck in traffic
going to Milan and Robyn, Dan & I decided to abort the mission!! We stopped off in Tremezzo on the way back for a quick look but all decided we were tired, grumpy and not well so we headed home for the pizza place again (via a gelato shop to lift the mood). We had another fabulous meal and got ready to leave.
This morning we left very early for the drive to Venezia. Lucky we did, as it took us 5.5 hours and that's without getting lost!! We bade farewell to the Alfa & Francesca at Marco Polo airport and jumped on the bus to Venezia....so far it's magical but arrivaderci until more news!
PS you can post comments if you wish - let me know what you think of my updates!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.164s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 15; qc: 64; dbt: 0.0818s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Helen Walters
non-member comment
Oh baby keep em comin!
How fab is your trip . . . I love the updates and feel like I'm actually with you on the trip. It's got me reminiscing about all those places and hanging to go back! The travel bug is starting to bite me again :-) Keep well and enjoy, love Helen xox