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Published: March 13th 2007
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Me on the Summit of Brunate
From Faro Voltiano, a stone structure from which you get the best views of Lake Como and the Alps Wknd #3: The Northern Italian Lakes. Lake Como: come one, come all... twins, boy scouts... I'll admit that after such an unexpectadly AMAZING day at Lake Maggiore, I wasn't thrilled about leaving to come to Como. It was a bit chillier, and not quite as striking, but I still found some adventure... I woke up pretty early, again to a beautiful but chilly day in Como. After an espresso I decided to go for a stroll by the lake to see what I could find. I did some people watching and saw: tons of fishermen... very serious, a man teaching his tiny grandson to fish, lots of bikers, and a tour of English old ladies. I also saw my first Aston Martin... and I think a love affair is about to begin... AMAZING looking CAR and it fit in beautifully with the landscape! Unfortunately, all of the villas were closed (off-season... they open again March 24 for those of you interested!), but they were still neat to see from the outside.
During the late morning, early afternoon I decided a little hiking was in order (have to work off at least 1/100th of the gelato I'm eating on
my future car
Aston Martin. beautiful. this trip!)... so, I took the funicular up Brunate. This is a mountain that overlooks the city of Como. Once I was up there, I took the "light walk" the guy at the front desk of my hostel advised. It's this tall stone structure called Faro Voltiano and yields the best panoramic views. And it did. One catch... it was NOT a light walk... it was a freakin STEEP walk and by the end I was just stripping off the layers and sweating. Yummy. Anyway, up there I started talking with this fun American couple from San Diego. He was ALLLL in to photography, so he took the first picture of this entry and also taught me a thing or two about my camera. After enjoying the view and chatting for quite some time (oh, and seeing the boy scouts and also adult male twins with MATCHING jackets!), we headed down together and took the funicular back down.
On the way to my ferry boat, I thought it was about time for an espresso (according to my triple espresso in the AM habit, I was already two down!) and maybe lunch. So I randomly chose this one place among
adorable
can I have a fishing lesson? many facing the lake. The only reason I bring this up is to further explain the picture I posted. The waiter/consierge was RIDICULOUS. In this feigned over-enthusiastic voice he accosted every single soul that walked by. I was waiting for a stray dog to prance by to see if he would start barking... seriously. He was following people down the street, too. I watched this with amusement for awhile and suddenly it started working... almost three couples in a row sat down. Maybe you had to be there, but look at the pic closely... you'll see the concerned look on his face as he looks for his next victim!
By the time I took the ferry, the sky was clear and it was warming up. In other words, there was some butt-checking involved to get a good seat. GOOD thing I played field hockey! ha. Because it was sunday, the ferry just made a circle of about 5 stops. I rode until the last one and decided to get out and walk around. Because the northern lakes are all among mountains, there's basically two ways to go... up... or down. I chose down first, but to no avail. For
Villa di Olmo
this is where I saw the tour of 60+ British Ladies! some reason there wasn't a path by the lake... just tons of private boat launches. Reminiscent of the hike at Lugano, I just started walking up... taking winding stair short cuts when I could find them.
Before I knew it, I was actually way up there... and the view just kept getting better. However, the trail/ became less and less evident. That's when things got interesting. You know when you just will yourself not to be seen... half holding your breath and looking at the ground, you tread quickly on your tip-toes? Well that's what I did a couple times when I think I may have been trespassing! The first time, I ended up at this dilapidated stone shack with a rabbit house (with HUGE rabbits inside... very Watership Down-ish) in the back, a gorgeous flourishing vegetable garden in the front, and these WEIRD/creepy Eewok-looking things. WHO KNOWS who lives/ occasionally inhabits the premises??! Something shady was going on, just take my word for it! ;-) So I got out of there rather quickly and then found myself hopping a fence 😊 and walking up a dirt road. Again, I ended up at an old home that didn't look
the funicular
took this up before my short, STEEP hike up to Faro Voltiano as if it was currently inhabited. Saw an amazing motorcycle from way back in the day though. took a pic, but didn't post it. Also saw some gorgeous blossoms, which i did put in. After that I found the real trail to the top and things stopped being as exciting. ha
Anyway, i practiced my trail running on the way back and managed to make the 17:45 train back to Milano. I talked with Mr. Bica most of the way, but it the background... just one seat back, there was a little baby girl who giggled the entire hour ride home. It was heart-warming and a nice way the end a marvelous weekend.
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